Mt. Rainier, in Washington State, is my favorite mountain. When Ed and I moved to Washington in 1983, it was EIGHT months before I saw the mountain. She hides behind her clouds so well that you could easily believe there is no mountain there at all. But then she will throw aside the veil, and you have the breath knocked out of you. We lived in Puyallup, which has some of the BEST views of Mt. Rainier. Deanna and I stayed with our neighbor Lenny for several days, and it was wonderful to see our mountain at sunrise, sunset, and all the times in between.
I made hiking plans with friend Diane, to do the Rampart Ridge Loop Trail on Sunday. We got to the park gate at 9:45, only second in line to pay, and marveled at the size of the old growth trees as we wound past Kautz Creek. Right away we were at Longmire, the start of the trail.
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| Longmire museum with the mountain peaking through the trees behind it. |
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| Diane starting up the wide, soft, quiet trail |
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| Just weird, that's all... |
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| One of the fearless birds that wants you to feed it, and that the rangers don't want you to feed. |
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| Yep, it was fun! |
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| After an hour or so, we met one other couple and got them to take our picture at a viewpoint. I'm wearing my Mt. Rainier Renovation t-shirt, and carrying cappuccino toffee. All-around Seattleite! |
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| Suddenly, there was the mountain! That family ahead was the only other group we saw the whole hike. |
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| You can see why Mt. Rainier calls to climbers. |
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| I'd forgotten about how moss covers everything under the trees there. |
The day was wonderful. Thank you Diane, and thanks for the great weather, and thanks to everyone else for not getting there in the morning!
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