While we were packing away our things, I heard what I thought was someone singing or doing vocal drills. My husband who had played the trumpet said "no, that's a horn". Well, we eventually found out that it was a fellow camper doing drills on her French horn mouthpiece. She is a professional French Horn player and carries a mouth piece with her to keep her mouth in shape. She was doing her trip in a different fashion than us. She was celebrating her 50th birthday by going around the mountain. Different friends would come in and out at the various trail sections and join her for a few days. What a great idea!
Mystic lake
A view of the mountain as we made our way out of Mystic lake.
A view of the meadow below.
My husband looks like he's posing, but he's actually visiting with some fellow hikers about their journey.
Walking through the meadow.
Mount Rainier with just a bit of smoke haze.
Marmot country.
A marmot enjoying his rock perch.
A foggy lunch break.
Looking down the Carbon Glacier from Dick creek. Clouds had begun to come up the valley while we were camped here.
August 22, day 2
Sunrise camp to Mystic lake.
I was glad that we had hiked up to Sunrise camp from White River campground to start our trip, instead of doing it at the end of our trip as we had planned. My legs cramped up a bit that night from the constant up with the weight of the backpack, first day woes. I do have issues with cramping and take Salt Sticks and have Nuun in my hydration bladder when I do long activities, especially when it's warm. We also learned a little trick from our Spartan races, a shot of mustard neutralizes the nerves and helps the cramps go away quite quickly. My husband brought a small bottle in his pack. It helped alot that first night,
We slept with our rain fly off it was dry so we didn't worry about getting wet, but boy did I get cold whenever I peeked my head out of my sleeping bag.
We woke to a nice sunny blue sky, packed up and headed out to the trail junction.
My husband's shadow near the trail sign.
Marmot crossing.
Marmot eating
Mount Rainier looming as we made our way to the Skyscraper ridge trail.
We passed several goats near the trail as we walked along.
Looking down towards Berkeley park.
We stopped at this creek for a rest break and water fill before heading up to Skyscraper ridge. We use a SteriPEN for our water purifying. It's been dependable for us.
Looking back as we crested the ridge.
Heading down the other side towards Granite creek, a slightly hazy view of Mount Rainier.
We stopped at Granite creek for our lunch break.
I enjoy documenting all of the log/bridges on our creek/river crossings. This one was a bit narrow for my liking with a full pack on my back.
So lush and green.
We hiked down alongside Winthrop Glacier, as you can see it's covered with debris. As we walked along we could hear chunks of debris falling off and tumbling down the side.
Time to cross the Winthrop creek bridge. This is the main one that I was worried about before the death a person a few weeks earlier. At that time it was lower on one end and slightly tilted with NO hand rail, during high water the creek was going over the low end. I was glad to see that it had been raised a bit, turned and a hand rail added.
My husband crossing the bridge.
Hand rail in place, needless to say this made all of the difference for me.
There is an interesting area between the two sides of the hills that we got to hike in, some of it follows this dry spine through a sparse forest. I always enjoy this section. As you can see there is still a bit of smoke in the air.
I liked the artistic curve to this handrail,
Mystic camp.
The Mystic lake ranger came to our camp to check on our permit and visited with us for quite a while. He was very nice, I enjoyed our visit with him. He was part of the search and recovery effort for the fellow that fell in at Winthrop creek bridge, so he filled us in on what was done to the bridge to make it more passable. Thanks to "James" and his bridge crew, we really appreciate your efforts.
