Panorama Point

Patrick has been busy with family this weekend. His niece, Cierra, and her friend Kaylee are visiting from San Diego. He'd asked me for things to do up here, and thought it would be nice to do a hike to show off our beautiful state. I suggested Skyline Trail up at Paradise on Mt Rainier because it has a view to die for: with Mt Adams, Mt Hood, and Mt St Helens on the skyline, along with the rest of Mt Rainier behind you. He asked if I wanted to join him and I agreed.

So Patrick, Cierra, and Kaylee were all running on about 3-4 hours of sleep. They had spent an afternoon up in Seattle and enjoyed the sunset up at the Space Needle (can we say jealous??). I had told them we needed to be on our way by 6 because it was a 2 hour drive and Paradise is the most popular destination on the mountain. The weather was going to be picture perfect and it was going to be crowded as hell, so we had to get there early. I think leaving by 6:40 was an accomplishment with 2 19-year-olds. And actually, with Patrick as well xD

This was my first time meeting Cierra and she's a very sweet kid. I like her a lot. Her and Patrick have an amazing dynamic and it's fun to watch them interact. I could say he's not much different with me a lot of the time; especially when it comes to tossing straw wrappers at my face.

So anyway, it has been several years since I attempted to hike Skyline Trail to Panorama Point. I don't know how Monica and I had managed it last time - I must have been in much better shape back then! This hike was killer. I'm also older - that probably doesn't help.

 
The hike seemed much more strenuous this time, plus I had a heaver pack on and probably a heaver camera. You do climb roughly 1,700 feet in 1.9 miles, plus the air is very thin that high up. We technically didn't even make it to the top. We stopped at 1.7 miles where there was a lookout point and we could see that we didn't want to climb the rest of the way to the top.
  
We rested at the lookout and played around with the chipmunks that had no fear when it came to
begging for food (which we never gave them. They will steal it though if you're not watching closely!) and hiked back down.

After that, the kids slept in the car and Patrick drove us to The RAM; a pretty good choice of a place to eat that wasn't around in San Diego, not to mention it was on the waterfront. After we ordered, we got a surprise visit from a magician. He was going between tables showing magic tricks to patrons. Now, Patrick loves magic. He told me once he'd love to do it but doesn't have the dexterity for it. This guy was great. He started with card tricks, and even just the way she shuffled the cards was impressive. But although it was fun watching him, I was more interested in watching Patrick. He was sitting next to me and kept looking back at me. The look of pure wonderment on his face was adorable. I didn't think I could love him any more in that moment just by watching the joy on his face.

After lunch, we stopped at Vahalla Coffee because Kaylee wanted to try a local roaster's coffee and she bought a bag to bring home with her. We stopped at my place for a minute since we were close, but unfortunately I had driven down to Olympia so my car was still down there. I was exhausted, but knew we had to go. On the way down I saw I-5 north was a complete mess; more than usual on a Sunday, and I really didn't want to sit in all that after the drive we just had, so I decided to hang out with them for a while. We ended up playing Cards Against Humanity; which was the first time for me because I had never had enough people around to play it before. It was definitely a lot of fun. Kaylee was a beast. I must have liked her humor the most because I ended up picking her card most often when it was my turn.

At 9pm, I was still checking the traffic and it was still pretty shitty - a 34 min drive was going to take more like 45 - I still just needed to call it and go home. So we all split - they decided to go get ice cream with Jordan and Patrick and I ended up going to Target to get a fan (it was so bloody hot in his apartment) because I didn't want to leave him yet.

I know, it's sappy. But I'm about to get sappier. Be prepared.

So I will admit, I am jealous of our time. I am a Quality Time Love Language, and I love our time together. I had felt like even though we had just spent the entire day together, his attention was split with his family. And I'm obviously not blaming him for that, but all the time we get never seems like enough, to me. But watching him with Cierra, and watching him watching the magic tricks, made me fall in love with him even more than I ever thought I could. He keeps me warm from the biting cold wind on the mountain top. Cares for my well-being like no one else. I feel like my heart is going to burst. I don't know how I could have found such an amazing human being. I just told him yesterday how excited I was for our trip to Canada (This week!!) because of all the time I'll get to spend with him - just us; not about LTX and meeting Linus. Not about Whistler and the gondola ride and the views. Just him. And our time together. The most important thing in my life.

Skyline Trail

I was standing on the edge of  trail with a clear warning sign of "steep snow", but I did not falter. I took my first step, and then another, my friend close behind me with both of my trekking pokes as she did not have hiking boots. I got about half way - I was going to make it! And then, I slipped.

Wait, let me back up to the beginning. On Thursday afternoon, while I was at work, a patient was telling us about a trail up on Paradise at the Mt. Rainier National Park, where apparently you can see several mountains at once. This intrigued me. Apparently, because Paradise's elevation was so high (5,400 ft), snow had been covering the Skyline trail up until this point but now it was "hikable".

I had managed to convince my friend Monica to go, as she liked to hike occasionally. It was a two hour drive, and a total of a 1,400 foot incline in a 6 mile loop. I hadn't hiked all summer but nothing was going to stop me now. I wanted that view more than anything, and I really wanted to test out my new Sony NEX-5N MILC camera.

The hike itself was well maintained. As you can see, it was a perfectly clear day, and we had a view of the top of Mt. Rainier pretty much the whole hike. I wasn't used to the thin air, so going up steep inclines definitely made me pause, but I could tell that my strength workouts at the Y were paying off.

Unfortunately, something in my camera flubbed up, and this was the result at Panorama Point. However, if you ignore the overexposure and weird darkening effect, you will see Mount Adams and off in the distance, Mount St. Helens with her blown top.

After Panorama Point is when Monica and I ran into trouble. This high up, there was indeed still snow on a part of the trail. Many people had created a useable trail and were currently crossing it, so we tried our luck.

This is where I was a few feet before I slipped. As you can see, it slopes down quite a bit at the end there, and I had nothing to hold onto. Luckily, my ass remained on the trail after I fell. But, like ice, there was no getting back up again. I decided to sled my way down to the other side. If it hadn't been for the fact that the snow here seemed colder than typical snow and was about freezing my hand off, it would have been fun. It happened to Monica also, and she ended up doing the same thing I had. She had supporters cheering her on behind her, though. :P

After that, the hike went well for a bit. We ran into a family where a teen had somehow hurt his ankle. They were currently trying to wrap it in a splint and asked if we had any Ace bandages. Unfortunately, our first aid kits were limited to band-aids and an S.O.S. whistle. A little over a mile away from the point of entry (as it was a loop), Monica somehow twinged her ankle; probably in sympathy. At this point, we had to slow quite a bit.
[At this point, with a tripod weighing my pack down because I was determined to get the well-known "blurry water photo" of my dreams, I had already tried twice to no avail. Even with a Neutral Density filter of 8, there was no shade and my photos were way over exposed. It wasn't until after Monica hurt herself that I was finally able to get the perfect shot.]

I let her go on without me while I set up my tripod one last time. Finally, a waterfall in the shade. The perfect conditions for my blurry water.

I was not disappointed.

We slowly made our way back to the car. That last 1.4 miles seemed endless. And I knew I was finally getting sunburned despite my slathering on of sunscreen before I left. But, it was all worth it in the end. The views were spectacular, and I finally got my dream photo!

Here's some more shots to satiate your need. Enjoy!