A sunny morning, Mount Rainier towering over the city. Grab snowshoes, make yesterday’s baguette into sarnies, pack the peanut butter cups and hit the road. A speedy two hours to Mount Rainier National Park and park up at a Wonderland Trailhead just up from Longmire.
Of course, mountain weather being what it is, this is the last time we saw Rainier all day!
However, we do see a bunch of snow, a million ghostly trees and not another soul. Which occasionally makes finding the trail, buried under three feet of snow, a little challenging. Brave faces all round!
Bridges are a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it means we are definitely on the trail. But drifting snow makes them especially hard work – even following in footprints as big as mine…
We follow our ears as much as our eyes to Carter and Madcap Falls in the end. Shimmering streams of water and a delicate shroud of “ice sickles” (grrr).
When I see this face, I know it’s time to turn around.
Back to the car with plenty of daylight. Unclip. Swap socks. Freewheel downhill to Eatonville for a mug of tea and a slab of cake. This is the life.
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