Mother Mountain loop backpack trip Part 3: Cataract Valley to Eagle's Roost

Tuesday's hike took us over Seattle and Spray parks, one of my favorite sections in the Mount Rainier trail system. We got to see some wildflowers as we made our way through Seattle park.

There are a few streams and small falls along the way.

I'm usually a big fan of what I call "bog board" trails, but I got a real education on this one. I took this photo looking back at where I had fallen. I must have stepped a wee bit to the left of center and the board flip up. I must have put my weight on my trekking poles because one of them bent pretty good. My husband was able to straighten it without it breaking, which was a relief to me since I really use my poles for: ups, downs and water crossing. Boy did it hurt when I got launched, my right leg took most of the impact and I'm guessing a nail scraped it also. I wear compression socks when I do activities and I think that they protected my wound from being any worse than it was. I was concerned that I'd broken something it hurt that bad, but after my husband helped me to stand back on the trail I discovered that my leg worked just fine. We put some bandages on my leg and marched on ahead. I decided that when we took our next rest break around snow I would put some on it to help keep the swelling down. Before we left the area my husband lifted all of the loose boards off of the bridge and laid them beside the trail so no one else would get upended. He discovered quite a few that were no longer attached. I got quite the reminder: stay to the center always!!!!

A small waterfall along our very green trail.

Once we came to the opening we got some of our first views and snow! I put in several photos of our trek up so you could see just how spectacular this trail is.

Our first peek at Mount Rainier,

We had several snow fields to cross, but the snow was soft and just needed a kick step for a good foot placement. Most of the snowfields were on an incline, so I was thankful for a soft surface. There weren't any icy sections at all. We packed our Yaktrax just in case, but we never needed them. My husband took this series of photos of me coming up one of the longer snow fields.

 

I was glad I got this photo of my husband, because you can see that he's kicking in his steps.

 

 In the photo below you can see way down to where we began this upward climb.

A painted rock to mark the trail.

Finally a chance to put some snow on my leg, it had been throbbing and had swollen a bit. So I was ready for a break. 

Lunchtime!

Another snow field and then nearly to Spray park.

We took a left instead of a right at the top of the snow field and took a side trip higher up. The clouds were starting to move in, so the effect was interesting as we made our way up the trail.

I love the high up "artic tundra" look to the environment at these higher elevations.

Some Alpine color along the trail.

 

Just a peek at Rainier through the clouds.

There is a small lake nestled near the snow. Can you see it?

  

 The clouds cleared for another peek at the mountain. We joined the trail that headed towards Spray park and saw a rock with paint on it so we knew we were headed the right direction,

  

Heading down Spray park.

There is a Marmot on the rock in the center of this photo, can you see it?

See if the photo below helps you to spot it. You made need to click on the photo to enlarge it.

The clouds stayed high enough that we could still see some views.

There were only a few snow fields in Spray park.

Another view of Rainier, I just was so happy to see it and the wildflowers. It really made my day. Sometimes I get over taken with emotion when I'm enjoying something. I cried alot in this section, just because I was so happy. Does that make sense to you?

So many Avalanche lilies along this section. ❤

Heather, Bistort and Indian Paintbrush were here and there as well.

We saw several Beargrass in bloom as we neared Eagles Roost.

We passed this creek just before the campground, it is the drinking water source for the campers. We purify everything we drink with a SteriPen and then boiling it for our meals.

Finally Eagle's Roost campground.

Two nights we stayed in camps numbered "6". It must be our lucky number. They were both great sites. Several campsites were closed at Eagle's Roost because of hazardous trees. So at a campground that was supposed to have 7 sites, only 3 are now available.

This site had two levels. one was a great kitchen space. It's always nice to have a place to put our stove and also logs to sit on.

The other level was where we put our tent.

Perfect!

When we got to camp I took off my bandages to see how my leg was doing. Not too bad, the ice did it's job for the swelling and my compression socks had kept my delicate baby soft leg skin 😉 from being more damaged than it could have been when I fell.

Here's the Relive video of the day's route:

https://youtu.be/f8VCuieaEJ0

Garmin stats:

Miles hiked - 7.1 miles

Ascent - 2329 feet

Descent - 2287 feet

Highest altitude - 6673 feet

Next post Part 4: Eagle's Roost to Ipsut Creek campground.

Mother Mountain loop backpack trip Part 2 - Ipsut creek to Cataract Valley

As we were eating dinner Monday night at our Ipsut camp, some deer walked up from the old river bed and made their way through the campground nibbling on the grass. It was a nice, quiet setting for our first night out.

The old ranger cabin is still standing. We talked to some park workers who were working on the building. They said that there is a plan to have a ranger work out of the cabin again. As we were making our way to the trailhead Tuesday morning, I took a picture of the cabin. You can see that they are working on replacing the windows.

Time to make our way to Cataract Valley campground, part of this loop follows the Wonderland trail.

I love all of the different log bridges along the trail, some have hand rails some don't.

My husband crossing the Carbon river on the bridge in the photo below.

We came to a trail junction, we would be going on the lower trail today and at the end of our trip we'll be coming down this hill.

The Carbon river.

This narrow section of the trail was having some erosion issues.

The trail ends at this river crossing because it is too damaged, that is why we need to cross here and then re-cross it at the Suspension bridge to continue our route to Cataract Valley campground. We crossed this river last summer when we hiked the Northern loop trail, you can read about that trip HERE. The river had completely changed course from last year. It is flowing along the opposite bank this year. So as soon as we came down to the river bed it was time to cross the main channel. I was happy to see that the bridge was a nice fat log with a nice hand rail. I marched right across it so I could take a video of my husband crossing it. If you watch the video with your sound turned on you'll hear the river below.

https://youtu.be/oyAggL4Cp64

I took a still photo during the video.

After we crossed the bridge we followed cairns to a short water crossing. It was about knee deep for me and had a nice soft sandy bottom. It was actually rather nice to cross.

More cairns to follow.

As we made our way across we could see bridges from seasons past, when the channel was along this bank. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it you'll see several bridges left from the carnage of past flows.

There was a forested section in the river bed. I like this picture of my husband leaning on the tree waiting for me to catch up.

Almost to the other bank of the river. It's a long rocky area to cross, thankfully there are cairns to follow.

One more bridge over a lovely clear stream, then on to the trail.

Our trail would lead us up towards the Carbon glacier. We would need to cross a Suspension bridge to get back across the river again,

Carbon River Suspension bridge.

I went across first so I could take a video of my husband's crossing.

Again if you have your sound turned on you'll be able to hear the breeze and the river below.

https://youtu.be/esZz0FHunyg

A still photo taken during the video,

We stopped for a lunch break before the long trek up to Cataract Valley at this wide bend in the trail junction.

The trail up to Cataract is pretty steep with many high steps framed with wood cut into the incline. Most of these steps are just a wee bit higher than my normal stride, so it's quite the workout with a full pack on my back. The camp sign was a welcome sight.

We had to cross this narrow bridge to get to our campsite and the bathroom trail. I side stepped across it as I didn't trust my balance with my full pack and no hand rail.  

We camped at site #6, we had stayed at this site 44 years ago when my husband and I first did the Wonderland trail together. I was glad it was available for us to stay this time. This site has several nice flat rocks that work for a kitchen area and nice logs and rocks around for sitting on. Some sites didn't have these luxuries.

There were "many" mosquitoes in this area, so I got out my mosquito head net and had a quick photo taken to show how lovely I am in it, before I put on some long pants.

These rocks were our camp view, we could see Pika running around on the rocks. I enjoyed listening to them.

This particular site is up and away from the rest of the campground so it is a nice private, quiet place to spend the night. 

Relive video of our second day -

https://youtu.be/XKuVm8JUaiE

Garmin stats:

Miles hiked - 6.68 miles

Ascent - 2254 feet 

Descent - 610 feet

Next post Part 3 - Cataract Valley, up and over Seattle and Spray parks to Eagle's Roost campground