Day 7: July 19 - Mystic Camp to White River
This was our longest day yet - 13 miles and the beginning of what would be the best part of the trip.
Miraculously, we were on the trail by 9 a.m. (usually we were up and going by 10 or 11 but b/c we're fast hikers, we made up for it those previous days). It also helped that we had a dry breakfast (power bars) rather than pulling out the stove and water for oatmeal. It was a nice change of pace. And here's what camp looked like - the tent was a MSR Hubba Hubba - two doors, all mesh top, single pole system, with a rainfly that allowed for vestibules where we could store our gear outside the tent but under the rainfly. It also allow decent enough room for two folks - one 6'4" and the other barely 5'0".
When we climbed out of Mystic, this was the environment - stands of dead trees sticking out of a base of rocky terrain. It made for an eerie atmosphere.
We then crossed another very rocky river bed, through woods and into a bowl of very dry and rocky terrain (right). Looking back, this was the ridge we hiked around from Mystic Camp (left).
Randy got this great picture of the northwest side of Rainier - from left to right: the summit (snow peak on the far left), Willis Wall (the rock wall in the middle) and Liberty Cap (the snow point on the right). The wall is one of the most dangerous areas of the mountain to climb.
*YAWN* I still wasn't awake yet. *grumble grumble*
However, we kicked butt that morning - 5.5 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes, all uphilll and took a break at Granite Pass camp.
Our next stop was Skyscraper Pass at 6,780 feet - one of the tallest points of the trip. The climb from Granite Pass was pretty easy - climbed out of the woods and into subapline meadow for about 500 feet and then all of a sudden, we were at Skyscraper Pass. It was only 1 p.m. by then, so Randy decided to scramble up Skyscraper Mountain. I decided to collect some thoughts in the journal and enjoy the absolute peace that one can only get when sitting on a pass by oneself and with a bird.
Mountain and Randy.
Bird and Tiffany.
Left: Mt. Rainier, with Little Tahoma Mountain on the left, and Willis Wall and Liberty Cap on the right. Right: a ridge line to the NW
View to the North, nice view of the Cascade Range.
After we left Skyscraper Pass, we came into this "bowl" - Burroughs Mountain is the ridge on the right, with Berkeley Park at its base (hidden).
After we descended into the Berkeley, we came across this three-way intersection, which I found amusing - like we were on a highway. I felt like I should have had a blinker. This was the beginning of our second time on the trip where we would interact with civilization, which would be at Sunrise, a very popular drive-in area for those who want a good look at The Mountain from a parking lot.
But we weren't too disappointed about our destination. The snack bar at Sunrise allowed a nice break from camp food, so it was onion rings, cheese and bacon chicken burgers (they were out of hamburgers!) and Rainier Beer that night. I've never scarfed down a burger so fast in my life, I was even done before Randy.
The other stuff on the table was the food we picked up at Sunrise at our second food pick up point. We realized at this juncture in the trip that we had WAY too much food, so we wound up taking what we needed and giving the rest to the park rangers. They keep it for hikers who pass through and don't have enough.
After dinner, we cleaned up in the bathrooms and made plans to meet up with hikers the next day who were headed in the same direction. We decided to hike together for the next few days, as the trail was about to get dicey. They stayed at Sunrise, while we hiked south 2 miles to White River, a car-camp site that was very, very full. We made camp in the backpackers-only area, explored the site a little, then crashed.
