Yet another wonderful overnight backpack trip at Mt. Rainier, from Mowich Lake to Eagle’s Roost campground for a quick overnight (thanks to DH for driving me up that nasty road and dropping me off!). Early the next morning I continued on up to Spray Falls and then Spray Park, where I spent a long time enjoying the crazy lenticular clouds that were forming over Mt. Rainer. It was fun to sit up that high and just watch the clouds shift and morph. Not to mention the views of everything else – Mist Park, Mother Mountain, Seattle Park, Carbon River Valley, etc. This is one of my favorite areas of Rainier.
After lunch I started the steep and rocky hike down to Cataract Valley, where i had planned to stay a 2nd night. When I got there I realized that my water filter wasn’t working, so I kept on going down to Carbon River, over the bouncy suspension bridge, and to Ipsut Campground where my bike was waiting for me to coast back to my car. All in all it turned out to be an 11-mile hike/5-mile bike day, and my knees were very mad at me, but it was still worth it!
