4,810 feet gained
Well, about 2.5 mile(one way) Pacific Crest Trail completed. Then.. With extras off the side.
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| Tathalum is on the far right |
Arriving atop Chinook Pass just barely outside Mount Rainier National Park, we began the day with absolutely stellar views of the American river valley. My cohorts had never been to the area (todays troops contained Kristen Bader and Dylan Bucknell). Looking at the area, they really didn’t understand what was to come… I on the other hand.. Did..
They'd find out soon enough
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| Fairly cool chopping |
We started by crossing highway 410, across a unique bridge. It had been hand cut and was really cool. We found that this was actually the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). From the crossing, it was a trek through Narnia. We were lead through the occasional snow/water trap (more on this later). We eventually came along a small lake/pond. Has no name as I am aware of but none the less, makes for some pretty pictures. We decided to go down and find out what the temperature was… Cold.
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| unnamed lake |
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| Dylan getting in the way |
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| Up.... From... Here |
Restarting on the trail above us, the valley began to close up against the ridges ahead of us. We crested a small saddle and found ourselves staring at Dewey lake and the top of Mount Adams. To our backs, Tahoma was slowly showing her southern face. We then found ourselves a top a small rock face with the only way being down. Not the fan of rock climbing that I am, I lowered myself slowly, very.. very.. slowly and we were on our ways again. We had then arrived at the base of Tathalum and the fun began.
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| About here was where they began to hate me |
UP FROM HERE. With a shining Tahoma at our back and dirt to surf UP, we pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. We tried to stay on the less wind expose side but it ultimately brought us out into wind side and walked a steep but short incline up a small ridge. By doing this, we had gone up, down, up, down then up again and finally had made the summit at 6,567 feet above sea level. Obviously no comparison to the mountain standing behind us but still very respectable in my opinion.
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| SUMMIT |
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| GORGOUS TAHOMA |
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| Best of the day |
We regained strength for about 20 minutes before trudging back down the talus sloped wind side. When we arrived at the base we decided to circumnavigate the rock wall and got some more incline. When we miraculously found the trail again. In doing so, we followed it about 1.5 miles home. Now earlier I mentioned the snow traps. Well Dylan decided to fall not once, not twice, not three times but four times while trying to across. Each time was jarring to him but was ultimately funny. Moral of the story…. When crossing snow… Go slow
From here… We have 4 more to go. Mailbox, Granite, Washington and Denny.
80,000 is coming...
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