[sarbar]

Since Rainrunner and me's backpacking trip got cut short this week, we decided to head out for a day of dayhiking up at Paradise, where neither of us had dayhiked before (not counting her trip to Muir and snowshoeing we have done up there) I had never seen Paradise without snow so that was cool. Hmmmm.....my take on the paved trails:why? Oh why Lord? Anyhoo, we headed up the trail towards the Mt., loving it as the tourists dropped off one by one. When we hit Panorama Point we took the High Skyline Trail versus the lower crossing. We hit only one snow field, alittle tricky but easy to cross and headed down. It was intresting to watch the change in the trail as we wrapped around the Mt., and headed down through all the melting snow fields-crossing a couple very pretty seasonal creeks. When we hit the junction for the Lakes Trail we decided, why not, we wanted a longer hike! The meadows in that area are so pretty! AND NO LOUSY BUGS!!!!! YES!!!! We headed down passing a couple tarns till about a 1/10 of a mile from the junction with the high lakes trail. Had a most pleasant hike back up, the meadows are as I said, so very worthy especially with that view of Rainer and Tahoma! We hit the junction and headed back down Skyline, and were pleasantly surprised by Paradise Valley-which I feel is the best part of the whole Skyline Trail. But as all good things go.....eventually the pavement comes back, along with the throngs of sweaty shirtless tourists with 2 cameras swinging back and forth. We ran through there to the car where a tasty picnic lunch of tortilla wraps, pasta salad and vanilla pudding awaited us. Yum! Awesome weather, blue skies, total flowers and a lack of tourists in the middle sections. Thanks Rainrunner for coming again with me and Ford!

[Hoosierdaddy]

How did Rainrunner do when crossing those snowfields? She overcame some "concerns" that she had on our PNW trip a couple of weeks ago and trudged on across a couple of them. Ah, the paved trails.... Ya gotta wonder if the throngs of tourists REALLY know that there's so much more out there?

[sarbar]

She did perfectley up there-in fact she had to lure "chicken-pants" Ford over the one steep one, which when halfway across turned out to be not so steep And the woman is off backpacking this weekend yet again!! She is a power house!! It is surreal to walk through the throngs of tourons the last 1/2 mile or so coming back into Paradise. I hate when I am on a trail enjoying the smell of nature and suddenley you pass a group of people who have enough perfume to kill a cow on ... YUCK!!!! It was a reminder how much I hate being a tourist, and why I usually avoid places like that But we had a good time, and saw a LOT of flowers and awesome views of all the volcanoes Helens was in particular very pretty yesterday.

[marta]

It was just as nice there today. Hubby and I went to see the flowers before they end. We originally were going to Berkeley Park but after hearing about the bugs.... Thanks for the warning. We did a shorter loop on Skyline. Starting at the Paradise Lodge, we did it in the reverse. Up Skyline along Edith Creek to the junction with the Lakes Trail. Lots of avalanche lilies in the shady gullies. Then up towards Panorama Point by the Van Trump memorial. For a change, we took the trail out to Paradise Glacier. Wow. Is that different. We went up and onto the glacier. Very moon like. Great views of Tatoosh Range, Adams and St. Helens. Backtracked to the Skyline and then took the Golden Gate Trail down instead of going all the way to Panorama Point. Lots of magenta paintbrush, lupine and birdsbeak. But it is going fast. Parking lot wasn't full when we arrived around 11:00am but it was packed when we left at 4:00pm. I wouldn't want to be there tomorrow or Sunday. BTW, on the way home, we saw the runners in the "Mt Rainier to the Pacific Relay". They started at the Lions building in Ashford. They were all along Hwy 7 and the cutoff to Eatonville. Looked hot.

[sarbar]

Glad to see someone knows the flowers! I see 'em, and it's ooh, the perty flowers I really need to get a book and do some learning!

[rainrunner]

Hey Hoosierdaddy! Thanks to you and the clan cheering me across that snowfield a couple of weeks ago, my fear of snowfields is gradually decreasing. Even though I was freaked out at first, I was proud of myself to buck up and lead the way across the snowfield at Paradise...I kept on telling myself...it's not as bad as the one I did up at Constance Pass ! On a related sidenote...I went back to the Olympics for a 1 nighter yesterday. My crazy hiking pal and I hiked in on the Upper Big Quilcene trail, camped at Camp Mystery, and then dayhiked across Marmot Pass, past Boulder Shelter, to Constance Pass once again (I was dying to see Constance Pass on a good weather day!) That huge, scary snowfield at Constance Pass was just barely a small patch of snow...you could step over it! And that huge snowfield near the rockslide area...no snow now! It was crazy to see it again....everything looks so different! I did have to practice my snowfield skills on a bit of snow still left on the far side of Marmot Pass...it wasn't much of a problem with a daypack on...but I was glad I didn't have to cross it 2 weeks ago with my big pack on!

[sarbar]

You are the WOMAN! I am happy to hear you guys did it I swear you have done more this week than most do all YEAR! WOO-HOO!!!!