Smile for awhile

We had the good fortune to spend the day with the waymarker S5280ft (Smile) on Sunday and decided to drag the poor jet-lagged soul up to Mt. Rainier with us. It was a full day and by the time we finished with dinner it was about 12:30 a.m., Michigan time. Hopefully we didn't wear him out too much, but it would have been criminal to pass up the chance of showing off a wintery Mt. Rainier on a clear day (few and far between in Washington state.)


I grew up in Washington and had never once been up to the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park during the winter. The roads were clear and sanded, but at the top the snow towered an amazing 10 plus feet on either side and it was like driving through a tunnel. Only the top of the great googie style Jackson Visitor Center stuck out of the snow and a 12-15 foot deep channel was carved out so visitors could get inside.



The mountains are my favorite part about Washington. As great as Seattle and Tacoma are, I'd rather hit the hills any day, so anyone coming to visit us be forwarned. In fact, you might want to have a little discussion with S5280ft before you let us know you'll be in town. He might have a few words of advice for you. :)



Above is a photo of the historic Paradise Inn. Currently it's being restored - well, it was being restored last summer and restoration will continue on the far side of the inn once the snow melts off in the early summer this year. We also stopped at the Longmire Administration area National Historic District so S5280ft could waymark a few Washington State Historic Markers, but alas, they were all under about 10 feet of snow. We did find a couple at lower elevations, thank goodness.



The above photo shows Paradise's Jackson Visitor Center, sunk in the snow with the sun setting behind it. I love this shot, particularly because it may be my last time to see the building. It is slated for demolition this summer when the new visitor center that was built last summer opens. It just can't handle the snow loads that Rainier gets at this elevation and the energy spent to keep the snow melted off of the slightly slanted roof just doesn't make sense. If you want to see a few more photos of the building check out waymark WM1M0N.

Thanks so much to S5280ft for taking time out of his busy schedule to ride up to the mountain with us. You have to admit, it is a pretty incredible place for a "Sticker Seeker" waymark visit photo. ;)

A Weekend in the Hills

I've been busy posting the 20 or so waymarks that I found while camping and hiking on Chinook Pass near Mt. Rainier National Park. Early Saturday we started a hike up to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap along the Pacific Crest Trail. For those of you who aren't familiar with the trail, it is a 2,600 mile trail that runs from the Canadian to the Mexican border through some of the most beautiful spots in the country. The wildflowers were gorgeous and the view from the gap was amazing. We continued past the gap into Mt. Rainier National Park, but didn't feel up to continuing to the next 2 gaps along the trail. It was freezing cold, but at least the area wasn't fogged in. There are some camp sites at Sheep Lake (seen in the picture above) and I think we might backpack in next year and use the lake as a base camp for further hikes. I waymarked the hike and surrounding area in many categories, including Named Mountain Gaps, Scenic Hikes and Hiking Footbridges.

After the hike we drove over to the Sunrise area of Mt. Rainier National Park. In my opinion this section of the park has the best views of any of the major visitor centers. Paradise is great for wildflowers, but if you want vistas of Rainier and limitless amazing hikes, head to Sunrise. Here we found many more waymarks, including one for the elusive Ansel Adams Photo Hunt category. Others were Scenic Overlooks, NRHP (still to be waymarked), National Parks of the World, and another Glacier waymark. The Ansel Adams waymark was one that I've been wanting to go and waymark since last winter. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating so you can only see the lower half of the mountain, but there was enough of Emmons Glacier showing to see that it was the same area. I only know of 2 landscape photos that Adams took in Washington State, so I was glad to be able to grab this one.

Some of the above waymarks haven't been approved at the time that I am posting this so they may not be visible on the site yet. We were able to post waymarks in 6 new categories this weekend. A big disappointment was that the two Smokey the Bear signs had been removed and instead there was just a small painted smokey on one of the fire risk signs, so no Smokey waymark for us.

Unfortunately the weekend ended on a wet note. It rained steadily all night and we discovered that our REI backpacking tent leaks! Our Kelty family camping tent was put through a tough test of a full night of pounding rain in the Midwest and not a drop came into the tent. Now, our supposedly superior backpacking tent leaked not just from near the base, but overhead and I ended up suffering the equivalent to Chinese water torture as it dripped icy water on my forehead for half of the night. And this was Washington rain! A slow drizzle, not the pounding stuff we dealt with in Iowa. Time to break out the seam sealer, I guess. We broke camp at 6 a.m. and headed home, only stopping to waymark a VFW hall and a church steeple on the way home.