We had spent a couple of days and a lot of money to make a drive up to Washington state to visit my family. We had good weather on the drive making our way through Nevada, California, Oregon, until eventually getting to my mom and Carl's house outside of Mt. Rainier National Park. So when Jacqueline and Zyla went out shopping with Mom, I took the opportunity to go up to Mt. Rainier. They let me in for free, which is awesome and I drove a short way into the park to the Kautz Creek trailhead. Last time that I was here, I destroyed the ignition on my mom's car somehow.
I wanted to throw on my snowshoes, but the beginning of the trail was just lightly dusted with snow. I was actually moving pretty good through the forests of big trees until I got to the creek. I had to cross the creek and I didn't have too much trouble getting across. I was enjoying the cool Washington winter and the big trees, but now I was going to have to deal with the heavy snow. I put the snowshoes on my feet and was now required to use them to keep from sinking in. Luckily, though, the trail was easily discernible as people had been hiking it recently. Most of the hike I was in the trees, but at times the peaks would pop out and give me a view.
One of these views was of Eagle Peak, a mountain that I climbed over ten years ago. It looked like it had a good dusting of snow on the top. I wasn't expecting to see many or any people, but I saw a group of guys who had stayed overnight on Mt. Ararat, which sounded like a cold experience but at least they picked a clear night for it. From this point the trail was even easier to find. Since it was now the off season from my days of hiking each week, it was good to get out and just to stay in shape. This trail was basically straight up, so it got my heart pumping.
I had to figure out how far I wanted to go and I decided that I at least had to get a view of the mountain before I turned around. When I finally got that view it just reminded me why Mt. Rainier is just so enticing. It is just so massive and dominates the skyline. It had taken me about three hours to get to this point, but in the winter, that had put me at my turnaround point, as darkness kicks in around 4:30 and by this point it was now past 1:30. The way down was much faster of course and I was surprised to see so many people on the trail as I saw a few groups still going up. There just are more people using the wilderness than their used to be. This is good and bad, but in Mt. Rainier during winter it is rather surprising. I made the car in no time flat and enjoyed my day out in the park.
I wanted to throw on my snowshoes, but the beginning of the trail was just lightly dusted with snow. I was actually moving pretty good through the forests of big trees until I got to the creek. I had to cross the creek and I didn't have too much trouble getting across. I was enjoying the cool Washington winter and the big trees, but now I was going to have to deal with the heavy snow. I put the snowshoes on my feet and was now required to use them to keep from sinking in. Luckily, though, the trail was easily discernible as people had been hiking it recently. Most of the hike I was in the trees, but at times the peaks would pop out and give me a view.
One of these views was of Eagle Peak, a mountain that I climbed over ten years ago. It looked like it had a good dusting of snow on the top. I wasn't expecting to see many or any people, but I saw a group of guys who had stayed overnight on Mt. Ararat, which sounded like a cold experience but at least they picked a clear night for it. From this point the trail was even easier to find. Since it was now the off season from my days of hiking each week, it was good to get out and just to stay in shape. This trail was basically straight up, so it got my heart pumping.
I had to figure out how far I wanted to go and I decided that I at least had to get a view of the mountain before I turned around. When I finally got that view it just reminded me why Mt. Rainier is just so enticing. It is just so massive and dominates the skyline. It had taken me about three hours to get to this point, but in the winter, that had put me at my turnaround point, as darkness kicks in around 4:30 and by this point it was now past 1:30. The way down was much faster of course and I was surprised to see so many people on the trail as I saw a few groups still going up. There just are more people using the wilderness than their used to be. This is good and bad, but in Mt. Rainier during winter it is rather surprising. I made the car in no time flat and enjoyed my day out in the park. 
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