Leslie and David's Wanderings: 6 August 2019 Mt. Rainer NP Sunrise Area

When the alarm went off this morning, we were up and moving eagerly. We had plotted a loop route out the night before for our hike in the Sunrise Area of Mt. Rainer NP. We arrived at the Sunrise parking area at 9 am and found there was plenty of parking spots. Apparently the locals had slept in this morning. We walked over to the visitor center to find it did not open until 10 am. As we turned around to leave, two rangers walked up and asked if we needed help. So we discussed our hiking plan with them and the ranger suggested some modifications and that we take the Sunrise Rim trail for the first part of the hike instead of the last. He explained that the climb was steeper, but that you had a view of Mt. Rainer all the way during the climb. If we went the other way around there was a ridge that prevented you from seeing the mountain until you got to the top, and then you had the mountain to your back on the way down. We took his advice. We started out on the Sunrise Rim trail and followed it till it intersected with Burroughs Trail and followed that back to Sunrise Visitor Center (5.3 miles, 1115 feet of elevation gain, 1351 calories burned). The hike to Shadow Lake through forest and meadows was very relaxing and warmed our legs up. The climb from Shadow Lake for 1.3 miles to the intersection with Burroughs Trail was steep, rocky, and tough. But the views of Mount Rainer as the trail meander of the ridge were incredible!!! The climb was about 1,000 feet starting at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. So the air was thin, the trail was steep, there was no shade and the temperatures were in the upper 70s to low 80s. We would not change a thing! We were hot, sweaty, tired, but the views of that mountain was worth it! We considered climbing the 500 additional feet in altitude to the top of Burroughs Two, but decided the view could not be any better than what we had already seen. The hike back to the Sunrise Visitor Center was a comfortable stroll after that climb. We stopped at the Frozen Lake Overlook and sat down to have a snack and drink water. As we sat there enjoying the view, a Chipmunk came nosing around looking for a treat and climbed up David’s leg and sat in his lap! There was a Ranger near by, so we did not feed him for fear of getting in trouble (Don’t feed the wild life!!) but it was obvious people had done so in the past. When we arrived back at Sunrise, the parking lot was packed and there were hundreds of people milling around, dozens of cars circling the parking lot in search of a spot, and too much hustle and bustle. We were glad we had gotten there early this morning before the overwhelming crowds had descended. We stopped in the Sunrise Inn to look through the gift shop. Then wandered into the snack bar for a couple of beers and a chocolate chip cookie to build our energy back up. Back at the truck, we pulled out our cooler and ate our sandwiches and chips while enjoying the cool breeze off the mountain.

After we got back to the Wanderer, and had cleaned up and eaten dinner, we sat down to work some more on our Mount Rainer puzzle. We were quickly filling it in, but there was one very distinctive piece that seemed to be missing. We looked under the couch, under the table, checked the box to see if it was there, but could not find it. We were down to the last 30 pieces or so and it was not there. So Leslie ran her hand across the top of the assembled portion of the puzzle and there it was! It blended in so well with another portion of the puzzle, we could not see it! The mystery solved, we quickly wrapped up the rest of the puzzle and admired our work. It had taken four evenings and a good portion of Monday to complete. But with no TV, cell phone or internet, what else is there to do?