Mt. Rainier TR

“Catzia, Ford and I decided to do a quick overnighter along the Carbon River in Mt. Rainier NP. The weather was *supposed* to be changing, so we gambled. And it paid off. We had not a drop of rain and actually had sun. Though it was very cold this weekend.

If you have been following the flood damage at MRNP, the Carbon River area was one part of the park that was affected quite a bit. The road has been closed since November. It is now a 5 mile walk into what used to be a rustic front country campground on the river, and what was an entrance to the Wonderland Trail. It is now a quiet walk thru a temperate rain forest, flittering along creeks and the river.


For the first part you start wondering "where is the destruction?" All seems fine.


In this shot, the road is not where the trail is, it is where all those logs are.


The road here is where the creek bed is now, to the left of Ford.


A Service Road to nowhere:


Looking upriver, the snow line was maybe 3,000 ft yesterday.


Here is a good showing of the destruction. The road used to go straight ahead. One nice thing is they have rerouted thru all of the blow outs and blowdowns.


The last blow out very much affected me. This is where Ipsut Creek jumped channels and blew out the road. They have planed a log and made a bridge.


This is where the couple died this winter, when the water was very high. There was not a planed log in, and they crossed here:

It was upriver, in a massive jumble of trees. Their deaths were not missed. A pile of flowers laid on the tree that the lady fell off. I felt no desire to go near there. I felt a sadness that needed to be respected.

The true crossing of Ipsut Creek is an awful log jam, on both sides of the concrete bridge. Yet the bridge held and is in great shape. The historic cabin is there as well:

The stream that ran under it is dried up now at least!

The campground sits there quietly. All 30 sites, with two massive privies, garbage cans and a ton of parking spots for hikers. It won't stay quiet at all, in another couple weeks, it will be the hugest backcountry camp in Rainier. For now, there was us, and 3 small groups spread out.




Having a picnic table was well, a luxury we don't get that often :D Catzia and I kept warm by drinking herbal tea and chatting. We called bed early to get warm, and were up early as usual. Oddly, her bladder valve was destroyed in the morning, but our three Ursack bags were untouched. Something chewed her bite valve up:


We left at 7:07 am with the sun just cresting the ridge. About a mile or less out we saw a hiker coming along the road, and Catzia looked at me and said "Is that Trailhead?" And it was! She was looking great, and said she HAD to get out and get some sunshine and Tahoma love :D She liked my idea of coming back.....bikes are allowed, and I am going to borrow a cart, and drag the packs out there so she can go backpacking :D

Looking back this morning:


2 hours hiking+flooring it out to civilization=latte happiness at Starbucks by 10 :D”

“Did someone say, "coffee"?
I just finished off my .5 liter thermal jug of Starbucks Italian.

Nice report!
One of these years I will have to do The Wonderland again, when it is ready for me.

Before that I would like to trek into Glacier Meadows and see Olympus and trek back out over the High Divide and out one of those trails.
Its been seven years since my kid and I did that trip.”

“Wow that place is beautiful.”

“Cool pics!”

“One of the best trip reports I've read here, Sarbar. I really connected with your feelings.”

“Thanks for the report Sarbar and thanks for the pics. Glad to see you got out this weekend, sorry you were feeling abit down from the loss and destruction, we've got no other choice but to move onwards... and upwards.

And what freezer bag delicacies were on the menu for the weekend?”

“I'm hoping the park service gets the trails cleared by August.

Thanks for the pics”

“Precision-good news is the trail to Carbon Glacier is almost cleared. Rainier has an amazing crew of trail workers (along with the WTA). I was amazed at how nice the "trail" part of the road had been blazed.

Capn Bobo-I almost took a photo of my dinner on Saturday. Then I didn't want you all to lose your appetite ;-)
I had a very tasty curry lentil blend, served over rice, topped with cheese. Yum! Only thing, is made the lentils in a separate bag, cut the corner and piped it onto the rice. Lets just say it looked like a lawn ornament ;-)”

“I was perusing your recipes this weekend! You are going to turn this 5-pound tupperware-toteing frozen meat carrying man into a freezer bag chef yet!

Maybe it looked like wet poopy, but I bet it tasted good!!! That doesn't scare me! We are MOUNTIAN PEOPLE, people!!!!!! (well at least I am!)”