Kirk and I took Ford and Walker out for a nice hike – especially since we can take Walker in his jogger stroller. Of course, once we have him and our gear loaded on that stroller is somewhere in the 60-70 lb range to push. Still better than wearing that! Walker isn’t a small boy so I take it as a treat to push him – and he loves it. I’d be comfy too being pushed in a plush chariot

“Mmmmmm! Cookies!”

Anyhow, we got to the Carbon early – like before 9 am. How that happened I have no idea. I have gotten bad in the past year or so of getting up early but today was gorgeous. It was sunny and blue skies. With really bad storms predicted for the late afternoon. No way was I missing out on hiking on what has been very rare sunny weekend days! Usually the Carbon is also over run by 10 am – due to little parking. But oddly enough it was actually very sparse with other hikers/bikers – at least past the 1 mile mark.

The Skunk Cabbage was in “bloom” everywhere there was standing water. Gorgeous (although stinky). I also hundreds of Trilliums that had just opened. The little signs that say maybe, just maybe we will get Spring eventually here in the PNW….

Just the typical Carbon walk – road walk, trail walk, road walk, etc through those big trees that make you want to sit down and take a nap. Pull up some moss and snooze.

We came to the trailhead for Ranger Falls/Green Lake and kept going, thinking of stopping at Chenuis Falls for our break/turn around but the always pretty forest/shade at the TH called to me and we turned back. We took our break above the creek. Walker got out and ran around, happy to be free for awhile.

It was the better choice I realized, as the lovely Chenuis Falls break area is in the open sun (although it has picnic tables from back when it was a parking area/picnic wayside/view over the river).

Daddy and Walker heading up the “real” trail – OK, he didn’t get far but next year he will This was Walker’s second trip out on the Carbon. Last year we took him for his 1 month celebration and only went a mile or so each way. This year we took him for a lot more of it – which in certain sections while the “trail” is quite walkable taking a jogger stroller is a workout for the pusher – it is huge river rocks to clear. Walker was loving it, snort! Bouncy, bouncy!

We packed up Walker, he settled into his chariot and his little eyes closed and he happily snoozed most of the way back. Ford took off and trail ran to the van where he apparently ate his stock of energy bars while waiting for us. His ipod kept him alive, while blasting the greatest hits of heavy metal. Kind of funny/sad when you realize your oldest is well, old enough to go do that. No toddling with me – he can take care of himself just fine.

I on the other hand enjoyed the walk back smelling the freshly sawed cedar, the warm wind and even the little green native slugs that were out.

And now? It is dumping rain like crazy. Glad I went! It was a nice 6+ miler with the family

~Sarah

A book on the history, geology, wildlife, flora and so much more. Beautiful drawings. But most of all? That smell that only an old bookstore has. I buy so much online now that I miss the smell. When I walked in with Walker in my arms it was like being 5 again and wandering through multiple rooms of knowledge. Yeah, I love books. Walker was more interested in all the cats living in the store.

If you love (Rainier) Tahoma this is a beautiful book and a glimpse into how it was once.

~Sarah

When I did it last we had camped at Nickel Creek and left just as first light came up. The woods were dark and cold down in Nickel Creek (it is a lovely camp with a babbling brook). The climb went by quick enough and soon enough we entered the meadows. Or rather the open hillside meadows, one after another. You keep climbing but somehow it is OK. Th views make up for the elevation gain.

Rainier is always ahead of you, if you lose sight then just keep going, it will be around the next knoll! That is the nicest thing about going this direction – the views.

As you come up to the high point on the Cowlitz Ridge Rainier is in front of you with the remnants of the Ohanapecosh Glacier that feed the start of the river. Way down below is the river and Indian Bar.

The descent goes quickly and you can see the cabin:

The cabin sits on the left side of the river, the other campsites are on the right, accessed via a bridge over the waterfalls there. The shelter is the “group” site (there is also a shelter at Summerland as well).

Crossing the river (though you don’t have to!) there is a lovely clear stream below the camp that is cold even on hot days….ahhhh! And while the river doesn’t look big in the photo it is a loud one. It is though very clear since the glacier that once fed it is nearly gone (now just a snow field) meaning unlike most rivers off of Rainier it isn’t full of glacial till. This is why down at the Grove of Patriarchs the river runs clear.

If you continue on and head for Panhandle Gap and Summerland the climbing starts again (it is brutal but can be done in a day, just save your energy and stay hydrated). The whole way is above treeline so you get views that get only better with every step. Looking down you can see the shelter way far below, just a speck. It is above the end of the grey river area, in the green.

Even higher you can still see it but suddenly you can also see Mt. Adams in the distance and more.

Finally you cross more ridges and the views open up to what one was looking up at from Indian Bar. After crossing a number of permanent snow fields, some with streams running under you break out into alpine tundra and are almost to Panhandle Gap, which is the high point and the dividing line between Indian Bar and Summerland. Even after this photo there was still many more feet to climb up. It is long.

But it is worth it.

Go to Indian Bar, take a lunch and spread out, take a nap in the sun. Cool your feet off. Then head back up the hill and then downhill to the car, slowly leaving the mountain until the trees wrap around you. Come July that is!

~Sarah

The Carbon is so different from the rest of the park, it has its own feeling. The first time as an adult I visited the area (and I don’t remember going there as a child, we would head up the Nisqually entrance, to Paradise) it was the early summer of 2003. The road was awful, if you could even call it that. 4 ½ miles of lumpy bumpy, narrow, trenches on both sides. The pullouts were few and far. I was glad to get to the end of the dumb road and go hiking. I had recently moved down South and the Carbon was free of snow – being in 2,000′s for elevation – so it made a great early season hike. A young Ford accompanied me and we did the hike out to the Carbon Glacier on The Wonderland Trail. Only thing is the WT was on a road bed as well in some areas. It was blazing hot with little shade for a good half or more of the hike. I don’t remember being overly impressed. Frankly the hike wasn’t stellar. It was over run. The trailhead sat next to the even more over run Ipsut Creek car campground that was always full of loud people and tons of dogs. What stands out in my memory of that hike was as we got back to the truck. There was a bear right there. Well, actually it was coming at us, flying out of the ladies outhouse. It was freaked out and scared.

The story behind the bear came out: a group thought that it was hilarious to feed a 3 year old male bear food. (That is when they leave Mom and are often very hungry). Bear came back. Idiots decided to let dogs chase the bear. Bear starts freaking out in the trailhead parking lot, gets on the engine of a newish pickup truck and starts jumping up and down, high pitched wail, claws out, while those damn dogs were barking non-stop. It was horrid. And illegal! I grabbed Ford after yelling at the jerks and drove out quickly to find a ranger to report it (the bear was caught 3 times and finally thankfully didn’t come back and was rehabilitated). I was soured on the Carbon to say the least. A blah hike, a bad road and a bad ending. I didn’t get why people got all excited about the area truthfully.

The next time I came back was in the summer of 2005 when I did the Mother Mountain Loop with Drew and Marty as a dayhike. The view here doesn’t exist at this point anymore – this part of the WT cleaved off in the storm of 2006. You got a great view of the Carbon Glacier, its snout and even the Mountain when there wasn’t clouds. I remember yet again hating the section to the suspension bridge/glacier. We encountered many people, even early in the morning and a couple of odd fruits who appeared to be doing drugs and making out instead of hiking. After all, ANYONE could drive out there. We were glad to turn off and head up the hard part of the trail where we saw only a few others the rest of the hike.

The last time I hiked it was in the summer of 2006 when Tori, Ford and I did a backpacking trip in Seattle Park and used the Carbon River Trail as a way to get up there (similar to 2005 trip above). We blew through that section both ways as fast as we could.

Ford ahead of me as we passed over the final creek before the suspension bridge:

I made a pact with myself that I wasn’t going back. No way. Every time I went out there I hated it. It was b-o-r-i-n-g. I could drive a paved road to Sunrise or Chinook Pass and go to alpine bliss in the same amount of time instead!

Then the storm of 2006 happened that fall. And what a storm. It crippled the park. The entire park shut down, all gates shut. Sunshine Campground by the Nisqually entrance was gone, wiped out in a blink. Major sections of the road to Longmire and Paradise were gone. Creeks jumped majorly. And the Carbon River Road was literally gone. There was a tragic drowning that winter out there on Ipsut Creek of a couple who had gone backpacking and got stuck on the wrong side when the water went up. It was nothing but water and trees everywhere.

The park closed the road at the park boundary and staffed the tiny old ranger station. There was a few parking spots. In the spring of 2007 I went out there, wondering honestly was the road really as bad as the papers touted? It was jaw dropping bad. That is as you got farther in. At first it didn’t look that bad, you know…go run it smooth, right? Well….that didn’t last long….

This was how it looked much of the way: the road bed crossed by massive old growth trees, coming in from both directions, with water flowing in the roadbed.

The road bed went through here, where the trees are crisscrossed. The park had quickly tried to put in some areas of fixes to make it walkable.

The roadbed is to the left, where the rocks are. Ford standing next to the massive tree’s root ball:

It really hit home when you walk into the clearing along the river and there was no road anymore. Nothing. A small path had been rudely cut out to the right to bypass it:

After the flood, Ipsut Creek had jumped its channel and was no longer going under the car bridge. The couple who sadly drowned had attempted to cross the creek on a log just upstream. The park installed very soon after that this first “bridge”, a planed log with a hand rail. You can see the road ahead of Ford, with a road sign warning about the 1 lane car bridge:

Cat, Ford and I spent the night at Ipsut Campground. It was tentatively a backcountry site but they let us use the garbage cans – and we had to have our own bear cans or Ursacks (something that normally you don’t have to have in Rainier). Picnic tables made camping great indeed.

I realzied on that first trip out that suddenly I had seen a side of the Carbon River I had never seen before. It was so quiet out there. The forest on the road walk was gorgeous. Old growth, rock walls, streams, a river. So many places to just stop and sit. A beautiful backcountry campground. And suddenly I was hooked.

I kept taking people out there, I wanted them to experience it. The walking was easy, you gain about 450 feet in 4½ miles. Kids could do it. You could bike or push a jogger stroller.

We celebrated New Years Day by hiking the Carbon in the snow on January 1st, 2008.

Teresa and Cat in the snow:

In March of 2008 I took Kirk and Ford out to the Carbon and showed Kirk the damage. The roadbed was still just as bad. You can see a road sign reflecting light under one of the trees. Kirk was shocked when he saw it.

Me standing by the same root ball that Ford had stood by the year before:

On one trip with Lynn we stopped and had lunch at the old parking area for Chenius Falls, which is across the river, accessed by a couple log foot bridges. At this time you could still see the falls clearly across the river. The flood of 2006 had wiped out everything growing in the river bed. The parking “lot” has picnic tables and a gorgeous view.

As we kept hiking the area we started hiking hikes that had been ignored before, such as Ranger Falls/Green Lake. The spot where the trail takes off from the road is a favorite sitting spot now, the creek pouring out to the Carbon. It is scenic and if daring…a great swim hole in the summer. We explored an old mine, waterfalls and more. If you read up old books and maps you will see what I talk about, or look for old parking areas and trails that wander from them.

The forest on the way to Ranger Falls is sublime, some of the best around:

Go in late spring/early summer for a great show. This year the lake isn’t even frozen right now. The falls are massive and go up a couple tiers. Loud as can be!

By 2010 the road in most parts has lost the “road feeling” and has become a trail. It is well loved and work is often done. Sections of the trail I didn’t recognize, they were that new. Suddenly I realized they had moved it away from the roadbed.

Walker’s first real hike was on the Carbon in late April of 2010, he was a day past one month old. It was to me the place I needed to take him.

I went back out this past summer with my friend Jared and we did a long day, a good 15 miles roundtrip, till we got to where the Wonderland Trail ceases to exist. The road I walked in 2007 was not the same anymore. It felt like a trail. But what I noticed was how quiet it was. While the road trail has become popular, it is popular with people wanting to get outside and exercise. Young and old, lots of families. Lots of smiling faces. A lot of people who have never walked in such a grand forest. When you go beyond Ipsut you suddenly realize how truly quiet it has become without the car. The waterfall of Ipsut Creek is now a destination worthy hike. In 2003 I took a quick glance but didn’t stop to enjoy it. After all it was a pithy .10 of a mile from the trailhead. That wasn’t a “hike”.

The old powerhouse is long destroyed by a massive tree going through it:

The waterfall is in a tiny canyon that feels like a grotto. Like AC cranked up high with clear water and so much green you can’t believe it:

The campground now is a real backcountry site with bear poles installed. The last half of the road/trail has smoothed out into a nice trail. Coming eventually in the plan selected, the road will become a trail with bike racks at points of interest. It will allow the area to become a quiet clean mecca without car exhaust.

~Sarah

No paltry amounts either, Rainier is a master at creating her own weather and often is hidden behind heavy clouds for weeks on end. Dumping and dumping snow. If you want to see a cool link, head over to this page and scroll down to weather and click on the PDF on annual snowfalls. PNW hikers may well remember the winter of 98-99 when Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park never opened (it snowed so much that year you couldn’t see the day lodge when the news helicopter flew over it!), at Rainier that year over 1,000″ of snow fell. When you step out to snowshoe at Rainier it is an utter fantasy land of snow. Often super fluffy, not the “famed” Cascade Concrete that blows to walk on at times.

The lovely Karen Sykes (Karen wrote the long running and influential column ‘Hike Of The Week’ for many years, which sadly ended after the Seattle P-I went down) writes for the Visit Rainier organization, that helps promote visiting our beloved fiery lady (Rainier, not Karen…hehheh!). Her recent column was on the Mazama Ridge snowshoe hike. The ridge is just the start of trips aplenty, one to take on a blinding blue day. As you start you wander along Paradise River (Creek) that once was much bigger but is still wonderful in winter:

The views once you break out of the trees is the Mountain in your face. And worth the elevation gain indeed. But don’t stop! Head back a bit and then down into Reflection Lakes basin where the Tatoosh Ridge is so close you might just keep going:

And if you sit there long enough you might just see hares, a fox, a watchful eagle and more. Just be sure to stay on the wanded trails if the snow hasn’t consolidated – that powder can be “fun”. Step off and “woomph” up to your stomach. Breaking trail is the ultimate hike on those days

If you ever get a chance to visit Tahoma in winter, come on a sunny day and head to Narada Falls and start walking!

~Sarah

Before this there was 3 Mt. Rainier maps – East, West and a blow up of the Paradise area. As mentioned I have chewed through a number of them over the years, while hiking all over Rainier and the Wonderland Trail. The new map is 269S and covers ALL of Rainier and the Wonderland Trail on Side A:

Side B has a bonus map that is a blow up of Paradise plus the entire glaciated area of the mountain for climbers, including major climbing routes:

You get the equivalent of the original 3 Rainier maps for $10 (the 3 maps ran about $15 to 16 total) in a waterproof, tear resistant 1.9 ounce package. It also includes an elevation profile of the Wonderland Trail (don’t look or you will want to cry ), where the backcountry camps are located, front country exhibits, picnic areas, a sidebar listing major trailheads with GPS waypoints and you want more? Do ya? Well not only all that but you get the Pacific Crest Trail on Side A going from Hayden Pass (near Big Crow Basin and the Crystal Ski Area) all the way to a few miles from Hwy 12 (White Pass). The PCT is so well laid out it is much better than the other waterproof PCT map produced via the FS.

I can only hope the use of the new material for the maps becomes the way for Green Trails. I’d happily replace all my overly loved maps for them to last longer. Anyhow, if you have Wonderland Fever this winter DO pick up the map, it is a must take item and well worth the cost.

~Sarah

We got up early and got to Rainier right as the rain came in. We tried our hardest to hike but even we had to concede the weather wasn’t worth fighting Some days are like that, I suppose. It was wet snow coming down at Longmire so we set out on a hike. Oh fine, it was a stroll in the snow/rain. I won’t stretch the truth! It was bad enough I was walking with an umbrella over the baby. Snort!

The ranger station at Longmire, where in summer one gets their permits for the Wonderland Trail. The trail starts just a few yards away. We putzed around on the WT until I realized it was just too icy for Walker’s safety (he is still riding in his front carrier). The snow at Longmire was old and not good for walking.

So trying to salvage the day we poked around on the Trail of Shadows which I realized that I may have walked when I was a kid but have not been on since.

And realized something – I had never noticed just how big the meadow is there but also that it has so much geothermal activity.

The smell is pretty mild, the hot springs at Ohoha on the other side of the mountain smell stronger. Still it is warm enough that there is little snow that sticks. It just sticks on the trail is all

On clear days there is a lovely view of Rainier from here:

Remnants of the Longmire’s ‘health resort’ where tourists came from far to partake of the waters:

More of the meadows, this one has a good looking beaver dam in it:

We spent part of the afternoon driving up into the snow. The snow wasn’t going to be sticking around, Pineapple Express’s bring in rapidly warming temperatures (it was warm this morning, low 50′s!).

We traded in our truck a couple weeks back for this, our party van as we jokingly call it. After a near month of driving her, I have to say I love driving a mini van. I was one of the “I hate mini vans” crowd until we rented one this fall on the East Coast. We were hooked within a couple hours on how great it was for families. And for hikers!

I love foot shots. Dumb but fun to take!

So thoroughly soaked we headed down the mountain to the outskirts of Ashford.We had a late lunch at Copper Creek Inn. Copper Creek can be equally good and bad – service can be lacking – we were sat and then ignored until another worker realized we had no waitress and more so we sat a good 30 minutes waiting for our meals. If locals come in they get served quickly. I have noticed this over the years in many stops. The food is usually good though and if you can sit through the fer-ever wait you won’t be hungry to say the least. That is Ashford for you though, part of its charm.

We stayed at Alexander’s Country Inn, a 99 year old hotel. I had driven by it many times before on the way to the Nisqually entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park but had never stopped in. It sits within 2 miles of the park with a towering ridge behind the property. It is a scenic spot and you can see why the hotel was built there so many years ago. The history of the property was quite enthralling – with many photos in the hotel to see how it looked over the years. The current owners have had it for over 35 years and it appears to be well run.They were fine with us checking in a bit early and took us on a tour of the inn. We stayed on the second floor in a suite that had a living room, a full bedroom, private full bath and a small sun deck (or shall we call it a rain deck? Hah!) Our suite was on the same floor as the open lounge that was prettily decorated for the holidays with a warming fireplace and many comfy chairs and couches to snuggle up in.

Walker playing under the Christmas tree:

We spent the afternoon and evening reading books, watching a little TV in the media room, playing a game of Monopoly where Land Baron Kirk won by putting us all into bankruptcy. Kirk and I spent a long time in the hot tub that looks out onto the pond and the ridges (only we had the stars and the moon instead!). The hot tub is a lovely place indeed in the cold!

The inn has high ceilings and the quietness that comes at night in the country. It is relaxing, warm and a contented feeling – where doing nothing is just fine. Just enough feeling of a B&B, yet family friendly. Breakfast in the morning was served in the dining room by reservation (one room at a time) and since we checked in first I was able to get us first slot. The breakfast is included with the room. They had a high chair for Walker ready and a bowl of Cheerios out for him. That was very nice of them. So after a relaxing breakfast that involved a very tasty apple nut cake we lounged some more before heading home in the increasing rain.

A relaxing weekend indeed!

~Sarah

We parked on the west side at Tipsoo Lake in Rainier NP. No parking passes needed so it is always a popular one. But if you arrive early on a cold morning it is often empty.

Being so cold we had Walker in a full body outfit, hat and blankie to keep him toasty warm against me. He was quite happy.

If one is doing the Naches Peak Loop Trail the secret is taking the trail on the hillside from the lake. It is poorly marked. Many people get up there and have no idea where it is. Which is too bad! Often people walk the highway up to the pass – when they could walk in quiet through a small hidden away meadow.

The flowers here were near the end but lets be frank: it was September 11th! That there were flowers still in showy form was shocking. We had a late melt out and a cold summer, but outside of a few random Huckleberry bushes later I saw no fall colors. Everything is green as in July. Including the berries

Where you come out the highway and normally cross it on a wooden bridge you now must cross the road. They have torn out the bridge marking Chinook Pass and Mt. Rainier NP, that the PCT runs over. It is slated to be replaced though. I realized that Walker was having his first stroll on the PCT. A smile indeed for that!

The clouds rapidly burnt away as we left the west side:

The green was soothing -

We took a short break at the lake and mostly drank in the views and let Walker stretch his little legs:

Possibly one of my all time favorite lakes to sit by. I have visited it at least once a year since 2003 and this morning I had thought about it, that if I didn’t go soon we would miss it.

As we crossed back over to the western side the clouds were below us:

As we walked I kept an eye out on the Huckle and wild alpine Blueberry plants. Very little was ripe, though I got a few. I did find a massive batch of low growing red Huckleberries but getting that low with Bowling Ball Buns isn’t easy So instead I snacked on the blues:

That lovely combo of clouds and sun all at one time. With Walker grabbing at my pole. He spent half the hike grabbing for them:

And me showing how to retrieve said pole after baby gets it and drops it, without bending over:

Rainier came out for the last couple minutes, with a pretty good Lenticular cloud on top. Which signifies a turn in weather within hours. So time to head down and for the toasty truck, no?

Though all that rasslin’ with trekking poles tuckered someone out.

Dropped out of the clouds and back into warm sun, flowers and sub-apline lakes once again.

Not a hard hike by any means. 3.67 according to the GPS and around 700+ ft gained and loss. It is though one of those incredible hikes that you don’t tire of or ever forget. You start high and stay high and get lakes, flowers, berries and mountain views. There is a reason whenever anyone wants a recommendation for an easy hike to impress I always tell them “Go do Naches Peak Loop”. They are always happy. And I saw it in a way I had never seen it before with Walker. It felt so similar to that first time with Ford when he was 6. Little ones see so much we easily go by!

~Sarah

Ford and I back in 2003 – he was 5 at the time:

It was good we did it back then – we never got back…other trails called to us. Then in 2006 both trails disappeared after the flooding. A “trail” was picked through to Glacier Basin, through the river bed, so that climbers could get access. The WTA (Washington State Trails) stepped in to help the realization of a new trail that would be permanent. Read this link to see what was going on last summer in 2009. The first third or so is done now and is an absolute dream to hike on.

The trail begins as the old one did, the parking being at the picnic area/climbers parking lot near the end of the White River Campground Rd. You have to road walk a tiny bit and then jig through a path in the woods where you come across the trailhead sign. The new trail pulls up above the river, getting out of the flood path. It is so smooth and evenly graded that you can walk without looking down. No twigs, roots or rocks! Well built bridges cross the streamlets pouring down.

Kirk and Walker before we got on the trail:

Ford and Kirk:

Walker and I in the woods:

Ford hanging out, he was carrying the gear for both him, Walker and I…nice to have the help!

After a lovely mile or so in the woods you start getting views of the mountain:

About where the trail used to hook off to the left to Emmons Moraine is this open area:

The good trail ends here, where the trail clips down the Inter Fork River. It is flagged and you skim the side on the rocks. There is though a whole new section of trail being built here, it isn’t open yet and we passed a worker. You can see right before the water where the new trail will switchback to go up and around this area.

We followed the flagging (yellow and pink ribbon) and kept going. But realized that while I could go uphill coming back downhill with the baby strapped on to me was not so easy. The trail here is a rough boot path, zagging through the woods and boulder fields. So we didn’t make it. Oh well! Going to where it clips the side of the Inter is a lovely turn around.

When the work is finally done this trail will be as nice or nicer than Summerland. Even then, it offers views and more without the crowds that swarm Summerland, just down the road.

We headed back and had a picnic in the trees above the White River, along the Wonderland Trail. A last look at Rainier from the river bed:

~Sarah

Looking at Burroughs backside from the lake:

If you walk around the lake you can see Little Tahoma and the top of the mountain. By then though the clouds were rolling back in:

Walker wasn’t enjoying the sun here. For most of the hike I carried an umbrella over him to protect his pale skin:

For a quick lunch I made up a batch of Packit Gourmet’s Cheddar Jack spread:

We had it served on Triscuit© crackers…yum! Walker was hanging out wondering where his share was….

Ponderosa, children and hubby:

Me and Ford, Walker in front looking out at Rainier that was slowly being covered by clouds once again:

A last look at the Mountain:

~Sarah