This was an amazing adventure, hiking up Mt Rainier for the first time with nothing more than a backpack.  Ted Palazzolo finally convinced me it would be “good for me” and “not so bad”.  Well, a week later as I post these photos there’s still a lot of things that hurt but he was right, it was good for me.  We did a loop from Ipsut Creek on the northwest side of the mountain and camped out two nights.  It was beautiful throughout, going through the forest, past all the creeks, up into the alpine, etc.

The first day and night were just lovely as the next day in the alpine.  From mid-day on day one till late on day two we didn’t see another human being and for both nights we had the camp sites all to ourselves!  Nothing but the noise of the waterfalls all around us.  Saturday night brought rain as did all of Sunday and the temperature dropped.

I almost made it the full way but after 10.5 miles on the trail, 4000+ vertical feet, and a night and a day of rain we got to the only spot on the trail with a road and I just couldn’t do the last pass.  Ted agreed to finish the last 5.5-mile segment and come get me with the truck.  After a several hours of rest I started down the road and made it about another 4 miles before Ted came along.   We were wet, cold, hungry and thirsty but even with the little detour there was a big sense of accomplishment, I had survived.

Enjoy the photos!