If I could label this summer as anything, I'd label it the Summer of Mt. Rainer. I've lived in the Seattle area since 1991 and I've never made it to Mt. Rainer. Now in one summer, I went three times. I guess when I decide I want to do something I do it.
In July, I took a trip with
Mrs. Landlord to Sunrise - one side of Mt. Rainer. Sunrise was spectacular. Its hard to find anything ugly in such beauty. And hard to take a bad photo.
Another friend who's unfortunately moving back to Chi town wanted to see Mt. Rainer before she moved back. We picked a date and we were off. The plan was simple, I'd pick H up in Renton and we'd hit the open road - stopping for breakfast first of course. The plan was to do the Paradise side of the mountain.
After breakfast at a pancake place, from where H, thankfully, took her left over blueberry pancakes with her (it'll become important to the store later). We had a map, and H was to be the navigator. She expressed to me early on that she wasn't the best navigator, but I felt we'd be fine. Having already done the Sunrise side, I figured out the important stuff was marked.
We were off.
Our first stop after entering the park was this "creek" bed of Kautz Creek. We hopped out of Sparky and peered over the side. H determined we needed to "hike" down to the river bed. "Look", she said, "a trail." So over we went. And it was a very nice, rocky trail. The river bed was full of rocks and it was clear that this bed was one that would flood if Mt. Rainer did explode. I hoped that wouldn't happen today.
As we walked, I turned to see what was behind me and was greeted with this.
Wow. Just wow. The sky was blue, the mountain was out and it was a beautiful sight. We walked a bit farther and saw the river that was running through it. There was a little log foot bridge that I chose to not cross, but needed a photo on it all the same.
Then it was back in to Sparky. Next stop, Christine Falls. We found parking right away here, and were amazed at how many people were down by the falls. There didn't seem to be as many cars for all the people. And of the people down there was a family that felt the falls belonged to them. We stood and waited a good 20 minutes for this family to take multiple photos of every single member of their extended family that was there. Multiple combinations ... oy. Finally, we just stepped in to take our photos.
It was a pretty bright day which made it hard with the shadows to get a good shot of the falls. But trust me, they were pretty cool looking.
According to the print out I brought that told us what to see, the next stop was Narada Falls. Again, once out of the car we figured we couldn't not walk down to the bottom to see the falls. That was, after all, what we were there to do. See the sights. And so we began our .1 mile decent to the bottom of the falls.
As we were going down I noted that this was a pretty steep path and that coming back up was going to be hell. I would be proven right with that, but it was well worth it.
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| See the rainbow? The sign said if you "catch it just right" you can see the rainbow. Apparently we caught it just right. |
The hike up I would later start to call the Narada Fall Death March. Good Lord it was a steep climb. Granted if I was in better shape it wouldn't have bothered me at all. H kept saying since she was a 3 day walker it was considered training.
Driving the loop we stopped, yet again to get a glorious photo of the mountain. It's just so beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures.
Oh and the gratuitous photo of Sparky. The mountain is back there, I swear.
Finally we made it to Paradise. Paradise is one of the many locations hikers and climbers start. It's got a couple of trail heads, and a ton of people milling about. As we sat in line to park though, everyone kinda stopped rolling forward and were craning their necks to see something. I had the camera in hand and was wow'd when I noticed about 2 feet from Sparky was a fawn. Just walking along the road.
H got a better photo of this little guy. I didn't see mama, but hoped she wasn't too far.
Once we parked, we wandered around some and finally decided we were both hungry enough to eat. As we sat and ate a VERY expensive roast beef sandwich, I took shot after shot of the mountain. The clouds were rolling in and out as we sat there. It was pretty darn cool to watch.
Finally after seeing enough of the mountain we hopped back in to Sparky and headed out. About 15 miles from Paradise, I decided to turn on the tunes and we'd have a little sing along. "Good Life" was playing when disaster struck.
I hit a rock in the road. A small, but large, pointy rock. Blew out Sparky's tire. H indicated that I should probably pull over, and by the grace of God there was a pull out there on this two lane road.
We both were relatively relaxed and figured we were smart enough girls to change a tire.
Getting out of Sparky to inspect the damage, it was clear the "fix a flat" wasn't going to work.
So I popped the trunk, pulled everything out, flipped open the lid that hid the spare and stood there dumbfounded...I didn't have a spare. No spare. What kind of car doesn't come with a spare?
No worries, I figured I had Ford Roadside assistance. We'd just call them and they'd come to get us. I whipped out my cell...no service.
Gulp!
I asked H if she had service. Nothing. We were stuck. Stranded. Flat tire, no spare and no method of calling anyone. I didn't panic just yet.
We got back in the car and H says, "Well at least we have my blueberry pancakes if we get hungry." She did a quick check of her back pack to see what other vittles we might need. I think she thought we were going to be there for a while. Thank GOD we ate at Paradise though.
After a short bit, I hopped out to start flagging down cars. Finally a truck pulled over and we wanted to check to see if they had service. They didn't. They did say they'd drive to the top of the pass and see if they had service. If they did, they'd call 911. Oh goody.
Back in the car we sat. Trying to decide what we should do. We discussed how one would tell whether a person you pull over would be a serial killer or not. We discussed if it was safer to pull over a man, a woman, or both. We discussed the captain going down with the ship. Which was quickly changed to "leave no man behind."
Finally, we started flagging cars down again. As luck would have it, H managed to flag down a ranger. Relief. They called for a tow truck out of a local town about 20 minutes away. They left - but before they left I asked them to send a ranger back by in an hour in case the tow truck didn't show up.
Back in the car H and started discussing the safety of a tow truck driver from a small town. We speculated he'd be dirty, smelly and unshaven. She then said I got to sit in the middle next to the truck driver.
H also started reading from the newspaper they give you when you enter the park. Specifically she was reading about bear attacks and how to avoid them. Followed by mountain lion attacks and how to avoid them. I was pretty sure we'd die if either decided to walk past us on the road. Though we could have given them the blueberry pancakes I suppose.
We sat. And we waited. And we waited some more. About the time we were starting to think nothing was coming, this BIG RED tow truck pulled up behind us. And out came Jim.
I had never been so glad to see some guy named Jim driving a big red tow truck in all my life.
He hooked Sparky up and we were off. A 30 minute drive to Packwood where Jim "hoped" he had a tire he could put on the car. If not, we'd have to figure out how we'd get home. It meant a call to H's husband who'd be thrilled I'm sure to drive to Packwood to get us.
Turns out Jim did have the tire and so he started the process of putting a new tire on Sparky. I bought two new tires because I've always been told that's what you should do. Never buy just one new tire. H indicated it would be better to give Jim our business than some Ford dealership.
So 2 hours later, Sparky got two new pairs of shoes, I was out almost $600, and we had one heck of a story.
Before we hit the road though, we thought it best to 1) pee and 2) stop to get rations just in case.
The rest of the ride home was rather boring after that little adventure. H was right, she'd have a heck of a story about going to Mt. Rainer in a flashy sports car without a spare.
Did some research when I got home and turns out a lot of new cars do not come with spare tires. Check your car. I now need to buy a spare and a jack. It dawned on me too late that I should have had Jim throw the good tire in the back. Then all I would have needed was a rim. But oh well. We made it alive.
