Emmons Glacier
That's right, after several weeks of no wilderness hikes, I was out hiking again on Saturday. This time was to Emmons Glacier Basin in the Mount Rainier National Park, about seven miles. The best picture that I took was the one above, which happened to be only about 1.25 miles in, so someone wanting to get a great view would only have about 2.5 miles of walking. Of course, from Seattle that's about 90 miles of driving each way, so you'd really have to want to see this particular view to only walk 2.5 miles.
Emmons Glacier is the largest glacier in the "lower 48," and the trail to the glacier basin is a commonly used route for climbers headed to the summit of Mount Rainier. The Wikipedia entry for the glacier has some information on that and a good diagram of the area.
Gaurav went with me again, becoming my first two-hike companion. He vowed to quit smoking forever as we were driving back, but by the time I got around to writing this blog entry, he'd started again. What an insidious habit smoking is. I don't get it myself, because while I actually kind of like the smell of a lit cigarette, the couple of times I tried smoking back in college, it just wasn't all that appealing. I don't understand drinking coffee, either, for that matter.
We (and I use "we" to mean "me, while Gaurav listened) did chat a bit with a woman that was headed to the summit. She was going to spend the night at a shelter around 10,000 feet, then strike for the summit at the usual starting time of 1am, when the snow and ice near the top are at their most solid. She said it was her second time climbing Mount Rainier. The first time for her was four years ago and she described it as, "Easy." She started with a basic mountaineering course from The Mountaineers. They have a basic mountaineering course of study that starts in January and prepares you for a climb to the summit by mid-summer. Getting all of this information was my way of researching what it would take for me to climb the mountain myself. I plan to sign up for the course next January, so perhaps this time next year, I'll be headed to the summit.
In the meantime, it was great to be back in the wilderness again. It's a great contrast with my city walks. And today, Sunday, I was all primed to do Walk 5 in Seattle, for a total of some 14 miles of walking/hiking this weekend.
1 comment:
I don't understand drinking coffee, either, for that matter.
I can tell you exactly how and why I started drinking coffee. Once upon a time, when I was somewhere near your age, and had given up flying without airplanes, I did a fair amount of travelling to client sites and all that. This was back when cabin attendants were called stewardesses, were cute (to the male passengers -- at least), and wore girdles. More on that another time.
I never drank coffee, couldn't stand the stuff. But that meant that I never got anything to drink until the entire cabin had been served coffee. If the flight was short, I got nothing until the meal was served. (Yes, airlines served meals then.) Then I would get nothing with the meal until -- you guessed it -- everyone else had their coffee. Eat it dry or learn to drink the stuff.
I decided that if I put enough sugar and cream in anything it would become potable. At the time, I also believed I could do anything I tried. So I learned to drink it. Forcibly, you might say.
Eventually I acquired the taste for really good, rich, well roasted coffee. I still can't stand cheap, poor quality coffee and don't much like the "flavored" variety.
Call it history.
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