Karen and Tom Wanderings

To celebrate Karen's birthday, we went hiking at Mt Rainier National Park.  Specifically, we went to Burroughs Mountain in the Sunrise area.  We'd delayed the trip a few days to avoid unstable weather, but, despite clear skies and perfect temps, a bit of wildfire smoke had returned.  It affected the views, but only caused us minor lung aggravation.  Even with the smoke, the hike was a delight ... the mountain looming almost impossibly large.  It's a pretty interesting area ... almost all above treeline with broad slopes and very fragile plant life.  With the hot, dry summer we've had, the flora had almost no color, giving the landscape a pretty barren look. Tom made it to 3rd Burroughs, and its awe-inspiring views of the Winthrop Glacier.  Karen was hesitant to push her knees too hard, and stopped a bit short of the summit.  She had also forgotten her hiking poles, but made do with a hiking stick she picked up along the way!  On her hike back...

Another week, another hike.  This time it was the most popular hike in the Cascades ... Snow Lake.  There's a reason it's so popular ... close to Seattle (Snoqualmie Pass), relatively short hike, and nice lake.  Due to crowd concerns, I (Tom) got another early start, which (as planned) resulted in a nice, quiet hike in to Snow Lake.  The low clouds were starting to burn off, providing a stunning view of the lake and surrounding peaks!  As I continued around Snow Lake and up to Gem Lake, the skies cleared up very nicely.  I had been there multiple times in the past (including when Karen and I got engaged some years back), but I think this may have been the first time that it wasn't socked in.  The still lake provided some awesome reflections of the neighboring mountains!  Wow!  On the hike back to the trailhead, I encountered the invading hordes ... probably a combination of the normal Friday get-a-head-start-on-the-weekend crew, plus the pent...

Looking to cover some new territory, I (Tom) found a challenging but intriguing day hike ... Mt Dickerman.  It's located in the north-central Cascades off the Mountain Loop Highway, and gains 4000' over about 4 miles ... so not a walk in the park.  It climbs through lush forest into lovely subalpine meadows, and finally to the rocky summit.  The clouds were scheduled to burn off by mid-morning, but didn't get the memo ... and were just starting to thin when I finished.  On the plus side, my early start resulting in some nice quiet hiking.  But honestly, watching the clouds moving in and out of the ridges was a nice change of pace. Lush forest trail Fireweed Buck-Perry Peak from Mt Dickerman Mt Dickerman Summit Mt Stillaguamish and clouds Del Campo, Morning Star, and Sperry Peaks (l to r), summits obscured by clouds More Photos

With a 5:30 am airport dropoff for Brian scheduled, I (Tom) decided to just keep driving south to spend the day at Spray Park, in the northwest corner of Mt Rainier National Park.  It's a special place that I've visited countless times, and am never disappointed.  Arriving at the trailhead at 7 am gave me a head start on any crowds, and I had nice, peaceful, lonely hike up (perfect!!).  After a traverse through the forest, the trail climbs up through Spray Park's ever expanding meadows and views.  The flower show wasn't as intense as I've seen, but was still quite nice, and constantly changing as I continued to climb.  At one point, I turned around to enjoy the view, and watched a bear descend down through the meadow, across the trail, and disappear into the woods.  At the top, I headed off trail to get to a lake that's hidden high in the park.  Quite stark and beautiful.  The way out was a bit more populated, but not obnoxiously so.  Just an...