The Wonderland Trail

My backpacking trip this year was to do a section of the Wonderland Trail on Mt Rainier. As I spent time last winter pouring over a couple of maps, paying particular attention to the topographical layout of the land, trail access from secondary roads and acceptable campsites for nearly a dozen people, I decided on a 16 mile section along the east side.

My trip last year across a portion of the Goat Rocks Wilderness at Old Snowy Mountain and Elk Pass was particularly taxing and I wasn’t in the mood for a long, rugged, and tiring experience this year! With that in mind, I began to lay out the trail.

Early in the spring, I faxed a campsite request to the US Forest Service, paid my $20.00 registration fee and waited to see. It wasn’t long until I received confirmation that I had the Group Camp sites at Summerland and Indian Bar nailed down for 10 hikers.

It turned out that 8 of us began the hike on July 20, 2006 at Frying Pan Creek trailhead, east of White Creek at Sunrise entrance into the Mt Rainier National Park. We staged a vehicle at Box Canyon trailhead, the end of our 3-day trip.

It was about noon when we began a 4-mile southerly leg from Frying Pan Creek to Summerland. We took our time and allowed for fun and photos along the way. The “kids” had fun playing in the cold, snowmelt streams as we made our way higher and higher, towards the snow-covered hills around the big mountain.

The highlight of the first day was after we broke through the trees and began an ascent up the open meadow along a tree covered hillside. In a particular clearing, we watched 3 Bears doing what Bears do. Mamma Bear was foraging for food and two cubs finding more fun than food.

We continue to make our way up a steep hillside with killer switchbacks, taking photos of the most scenic area I’ve seen in Washington. The wild flowers were blooming in abundance. The Avalanche Lilies were some of the most spectacular, even rivaling last spring’s crop! The colorful Indian Paint Brush was beautiful, but not close to the beauty of those we found growing along streams on the Lily Basin Trail in the Goat Rocks last year.

Summerland Camp was a beautiful spot! The mountain was gorgeous, the weather was clear, the temperature was perfect and the water was plentiful, cold and sweet. The Group Campsite had a wonderfully made 1930’s era Adirondack of stone and logs, with a raised, plank covered floor. From our vantage point we could look down upon a rushing stream of cold, snowmelt water, snow covered hillsides, the top of Mt Rainier and lush meadows. The best part was the use of a clean toilet! That’s somewhat of a luxury in the mountains!

Brian was in Phoenix when we left Portland for Mt Rainier. He eventually arrived at the trailhead and hiked up alone to connect with us at Summerland. He wasn’t far behind us, as we took our sweet time and lingered too long in several places. Brian came into camp and began telling us the story of his encounter with a bear. Apparently, the same bear we saw had came down closer to the trail and was startled by Brian hiking briskly up the trail. The bear rose up and growled at him a warning to back off! He did. He wasn’t able to proceed until about 15 minutes had passed when the bear moved back up the hill. Naturally, Brian had no photos to prove this encounter…..but we will take his word!

We enjoyed hot meals for supper, some fun and conversation. We set up our tents inside the Adirondack as the “bugs” were beginning to bite. We hung our food sacks high up on the “bear pole”, just in case….and settled in for a good night’s rest.

Day two came with the morning sun rising on our campsite with a still quietness. I arose early to dress and go down into the nearby meadow with my camera. Ron was already up and out of his tent. As I walked along the trail towards the base of the nearby mountainside, I noticed 3 deer running in the morning sunlight. They appeared to be a Mamma and two Fawns, nearly her size. It was a beautiful and peaceful sight. I could hear Marmot whistling in the background. Each time one whistled, the deer would perk up their ears and listen, as if for danger. Ron came up behind me and we watched together as we spoke of this pristine beauty.

In a few moments we noticed a small group of mountain climbers hiking down the steep, snow covered slope towards the meadow. Later discussion with one of them informed us that they had spent the night on the higher elevation after climbing Little Tahoma Mountain the day before.

We walked back into camp and began to prepare breakfast. Most of the crew was waking by this time. Some began telling stories of the night sky and the magnificent stars they could see. I didn’t wake up until morning and wasn’t able to identify with their stories. Besides, I can’t see stars very well anymore.

We set out for Indian Bar, our next campsite around 10:30, for what we thought to be an easy 4 miles. As it turned out, that leg of our journey was more “high tech” than we ever imagined. We continued upward, mostly walking on giant snowfields, following tracks made by other hikers on previous days. It was a beautiful hike. We were finding this to be more difficult than we had imagined. At one point we lost the trail and spent an hour on a slippery slope until we relocated it much higher up on a mountain slope.

From the top of that mountainside, the rest was downhill to Indian Bar, encountering less and less snow as we descended several hundred feet to the roaring streambed far below.

A small herd of 15 or 16 Mountain Goats were enjoying the snow cover in the Panhandle Gap area. There were 6 or 7 baby goats in the herd and they seemed to particularly enjoy the snow.

We enjoyed vistas we couldn’t even imagine. The mountains were fantastic, coupled with the sounds of rushing water, falling streams of snowmelt hundreds of feet high, the whistle of Marmot and Pika, and the smell of wild flowers that grew in abundance. The snow was plentiful this time of year, yet rapidly melting in the warm sun. The vista of Indian Bar as we descended off the mountain was ever before us. It was a beautiful valley of rushing water over lava rock. The Adirondack we reserved was as pristine as the one at Summerland, except this one had “jailhouse” bunks along the walls. Most of us still set up tents with the exception of Brian, who tried out one of the bunks that night.
The two girls set up their tent along the stream that roared down the valley. It looked like a very peaceful place to be.

The next morning, our third day, we arose early and packed up as breakfast was brewing. We had 7 ½ Miles ahead of us today and wanted to make it out as early as possible. The first couple of hours gave us an 800 foot elevation gain that spilled out atop a beautiful knoll with a 360 degree view of the world, with beautiful Mt Rainier as its centerpiece.

Brian spotted a rather large heard of Elk standing out on a snowfield across the valley. We watched them through binoculars and took snapshots. We counted 61 in all. They were far away but very beautiful to see. Following our photo shoot we headed along the ridgelines for several miles then the trail dropped down into dense forest until we reached Box Canyon Trailhead.

Looking back, I believe everyone enjoyed this hike immensely. Several of our group commented about doing this one again and how this was now “the favorite”. I was very pleased with the entire experience and highly recommend this portion of The Wonderland Trail to anyone!

After looking over my Europe photographs, one caught my eye that might explain much of what I was saying about the statues in Italy. Some of you might want to put some “White-Out” on your screen before you show this to your kids. Even Debby & Nancy didn’t want to look!!

Europe 2006 Part Two:
I must admit that Garmisch was all that I had remembered it to be. I recall the elaborately painted Bavarian houses and buildings as they were in 1968. I loved Bavaria. There’s something about it’s peacefulness that charms with a character all its own. I could live there! And, what’s a Bavarian house without painted-on decorative window shutters? Not to mention the mounted Elk head with the perfect Antlers high up on the building wall as if watching over the neighborhood (as only a dead Elk can do). And scenes or images of events with people having fun “prosting” their “biers” with music and dancing! And the music! This is the only area of the world I know where the Accordion plays second fiddle to the Harmonica!

The Alpenhorn is very cool! It is a wooden horn that is about 12 feet long, straight with a slight curve at the mouth of the horn. It was originally used in the alpine regions to communicate long distances. We watched an old man entertaining the guests atop the Zugspitze as he played 3 different instruments, one being the Alpenhorn.

In my opinion, German food is superior to any other European food that I have had. Perhaps it’s because I’m a professed carnivore and love meat! Germans love to cook meat and I love to eat it! It works for me. Since 1968 I have missed “Weiner Schnitzel” immensely. Yes, the Rheinlander in Portland is authentic and does a great job, too, but still does not achieve the perfection of the average Bavarian cook……nothing personal Horst Mager.

I did manage to stuff down a Schnitzel every evening in Garmisch and I offer no apologies! Our last night was spent at a very lively restaurant where we sampled the Bavarian delights and listened to a very well-shaped gentleman (“round” is a shape!) playing the Accordion, singing and yodeling all evening. It was great! There was dancing for entertainment…..some kind of Bavarian slap dancing or something, as well as a singing skit put on by 3 or 4 American kids from Michigan who were in Germany as part of a language class. It was cool. They were a great group of kids and represented our country quite well. The Accordion player/singing yodeler seemed to get better with every glass of beer he drank……I say “glass”, but they were clear glass steins about 14” high. I stopped counting after his 3rd or 4th glass.

We left the next morning, taking an early train to Munich in order to arrive before 11:00 AM to make it to the Marienplatz and view the popular Clock Tower. It commemorates the marriage of some royalty back in the 17th or 18th century with dancing of (near) life size figurines and jousting warriors (complete with a winner!) on circular tracks.

We canceled our trip to stay overnight at Gimmelwald, Switzerland, as the majority of our group had already “O.D.’d” on the Alps, and chose, instead, to head on to Paris, France.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower was awesome! It was more amazing in size than I ever dreamed it to be. We took the elevator ride up to the second level to view the city. Did I mention that 1,000 other people were doing the same thing?? But that’s okay! We had fun sight seeing Paris, with all the places I can’t remember (but have serious pictures of). Notre Dame was fantastic to see and we arrived early to avoid all the tour buses filled with tourists. It was very beautiful. We spent part of a day in the Louvre. It’s amazing how large of a Museum the Louvre really is! There are 3 levels and would take days to go through and see everything. Again, I “O.D.’d” on paintings and statues of naked men…..and more paintings…..

Not far from the Eiffel Tower, looking out over the Seine River, a very familiar sight made us remember home; the original French “Statue of Liberty”, miniature version. It was awesome!

We made a point to take a serious look at the Mona Lisa. It looked very much like the ones sold on many Parisian street corners ….. which were probably “originals” in the minds of the hawkers. We took a ride on a boat along the Seine River and viewed Paris in the evening sun between Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. It was very relaxing. We spent 5 days in Paris, sampling the cuisine at sidewalk cafes and touring the city, taking numerous photos and spending serious dough on $6.00 coffee and expensive food. If you go to Paris, take a lot of money with you!

Our day visit to Normandy was awesome, even though our reservations were canceled by the credit card company. Watch out for Capital One!! Even though we gave them our itinerary prior to leaving the states, to let them know we would be using the credit card in various countries of Europe, they still managed to put a stop on its usage with a “fraud alert”, until we found out the hard way and called them. But that didn’t help much with our reservations! We visited Omaha Beach and saw the monuments. We visited the American Memorial Graveyard, filled with many white, marble crosses. It was a moving experience to actually be there and see everything.

I was not impressed with the French people. For the most part, they were unkind, unfriendly, “short-fused”, seeming to have very little use for Americans. I entered France with a certain expectation of the French people and I left there not being disappointed. I would not want to return, yet I am glad to have been there. The remainder of Europe was great!

Our European trip ended with an early morning flight out of Paris to New York on a crowed, American Airlines jet. We stayed in New York City for a couple of days prior to coming home. Times Square was awesome, as always and we enjoyed a zesty shrimp dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp Company, with an evening view of the Time’s Square lights and immense crowds.

Our boat tour around Manhattan offered special views of the Statue of Liberty and of course, Debby’s favorite, The Little Red Light House under the Great Gray Bridge.

Jet Blue was our hero the last day and we had spacious seating (compared to American) for our 6 hour flight home. If you have never visited a foreign country, you should try it sometime. It will give you a great perspective of our own country! There is, indeed, no place like the USA!

Europe Tour 2006

We just returned from a whirlwind tour of Europe, spending 3 weeks in 4 countries. If you haven’t been, Europe is rich in history and art; which is like eating honey…… after several bites, you begin to get a little nauseous! Not all of us can stand a full plate of Art, historic buildings, Renaissance Paintings, naked statues of men that stand in Galleries stretching from the tip of Italy to the top of Mars, more paintings and still more paintings. For those of you who CAN, I applaud you! Being brought up in Backwoods, Arkansas, we only learned the 3 R’s of reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. In Arkansas, “refined” education meant a field trip to Paris, Arkansas. But in Europe, the 3 R’s means Renaissance, Renaissance, and still more Renaissance paintings.

All in all, the trip was very good! It was a wonderful experience for my Bride and I. We had been planning this excursion since 1971 and we felt like it was high time to go! My woman planned the trip……no weenie tour groups for us! We wanted a custom made trip, fit for a tight budget! She planned and planned for days and weeks; poured over books and web sites with experts and geeks until, finally, the day came to go.

We had purchased Eurail Passes, airline tickets, hotel accommodations and special light weight, wrinkle free, quick dry, mix and match outfits that fit into a 20 pound carry on suitcase so we could travel light and travel fast. We hit the ground running and remained that way for nearly 3 weeks.

We took Jet Blue from Portland to New York, then American into Rome. Three days in Rome in a Villa Bed & Breakfast in a realtime Italian neighborhood was perfect. We learned how to secure bus passes and travel the streets with the natives on Trolleys & Busses without getting lost very much.

We visited the Coliseum and surrounding Roman ruins, that are still being excavated to this day, The Vatican, Museums, Monuments, churches of all sizes, shapes and awesomeness. We saw statues and fountains; statues IN fountains; fountains spurting from statues; paintings of all sizes, shapes, kinds…..whatever the imagination could possibly conceive….we saw it! We wondered what it was that captivated the Roman Artists to paint and sculpt male anatomy on nearly every piece of art we saw. Statues by the hundreds, standing there in broad daylight with their “thingies” showing. Well, not EVERYWHERE……..apparently when the Nuns took over some of the big churches a few centuries ago, they went around knocking off the private parts of many of the statues’ anatomy. That was funny.

We left Rome early on Sunday morning and headed for Florence to attend a church of Christ. Unfortunately, train connections blew our schedule and we arrived much too late. We found our hotel okay and proceeded to see the sights of Florence after checking in early. We visited such places as the naked statue of David and several of his naked buddies. We went into several big churches were the Catholics and the Russians had spent serious dough building. They were awesome to see. No expense was spared in the construction. We saw many more paintings, more naked statues and still more paintings. We spent a little time shopping and looking at things we couldn’t possibly bring back home even if we bought it!

From Florence the next day, we took our Train to Venice. There are no “pot holes” in the streets of Venice! Venice is a beautiful, old city, full of age-old buildings, churches, art and naked statues. We took a boat ride along the canals and took in the charm of this ancient city. We did the Gondola thing and had our boatman sing to us!

Evening came and we caught the last train to Munich, Germany…..as well as several FIFA Soccer Fans! We had First Class accommodations throughout our Europe trip, however, it would have been nice if we had some “sleeper accommodations”. So we sat up in our seats and tried to sleep during the 7 hour trip to Munich.

We arrived early in the morning….on Tuesday, I believe. We took in some of the sights and sampled food and coffee for a few hours before boarding our train, headed to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Garmisch was always my favorite place to go when I was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany during my military days.

We had our own Apartment, about 1200 square feet of space in the heart of the city. It was wonderful! Garmisch is situated in the valley at the foot of Germany’s highest mountain in the Alps, a beautiful, lush green with cold streams of melted snow, beautifully decorated buildings with planter boxes filled with flowers of all kinds and that Bavarian atmosphere you always imagine. The restaurants were always serving the best food in Europe, the people were helpful and friendly and the view of the Alps was amazing to see. The church bells would ring on every quarter-hour and seemed to ring forever at noontime! They were very loud, but very pleasant to listen to.

We spent 3 days in Garmisch enjoying the Bavarian scenery and taking in every atmosphere we could. In the evening, a nearby farmer drove his golden dairy cows right down the main street; each one wearing bells that rang sharply as they walked clippity clop down the asphalt street, driven by caretakers on bicycles. The automobiles would pull over and allow the cattle to pass by before proceeding.

We took a cable car to the top of Germany’s highest mountain, the Zugspitze, at 2,950 meters high. It was beautiful at the top. Snow was still on the restaurant structure, yet it was a warm, sunny day. That was where I first went snow skiing. It was 1968.

I hated to leave Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but our time was up and we needed to move on.

I’ll write more about the trip later…..

It has been a while since my last blog post. It’s not like my life is so boring that there’s nothing to write about…..it’s that I’ve been busy. Sometimes I find myself seriously occupied and there isn’t room enough inside my head to “think”.

Aaron continues to improve with the Chemo treatments. However, the drugs and radiation treatments continue to drag him down, creating other problems that he must try to deal with. Those of you who have had to endure Chemo know more about that than I do. But the boy is in good spirits! That’s a plus! He has a great attitude and faces every day with strength and determination. He always has a smile on his face. His family dynamics have changed and everyone needs to conform to the new “atmosphere”. The house must be kept clean, as germ-free as possible, and visitors must use hand sanitizer to avoid spreading germs to him. He can’t do a lot of the things he used to do. I think he misses running the most. His appetite has increased and he “puts away the groceries”. He has lost most of his hair now and wears hats to cover up the evidence. We just returned from Europe and brought him back several ball caps from various places.

His strength and sickness level varies from day to day. As much as he enjoys getting outside and doing something, oftentimes he can’t. He wasn’t at church yesterday because he wasn’t feeling very good.

So…..what can you do??

Prayer is the best that any of us can do right now. A lot of people have been praying for him. This is very helpful to his recovery. His blood count is better and the cancer is being destroyed. He still has a long time to go with the Chemo. Send him a card, make a phone call, or even a visit is encouraging.

My thanks to the many who have been praying for Aaron. May god bless your life for taking the time to encourage my Grandson.