So after freezing our buns off at the Teeth of the Larch camp out, Mark and I decided to stretch our legs and warm up a little with a hike. The Ironstone Mtn trail is just up the road from the camp out and was the perfect choice for the day. It's basically a lovely ridge walk with some great views in all directions. I suspect in the spring the flowers up there would be gorgeous too.
When we got to the trailhead at 11 AM we found a group of hunters setting up their large camp at the trailhead. We were relieved to find out that the hunting wouldn't begin until next week. (I've been told by other hikers that at least one of my dogs looks like a deer from the distance... ) Time to break out the blaze!
The hike begins with a descent into the woods and in a short distance it opens up with great views in all directions.
On the shady parts of the trail there were sections of light snow (about 2-3 inches). It was getting slippery/icy as more people traveled on it but we didn't need traction devices. Even after noon the temps were still only 30-35 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty good in the open sections so the fleece and gloves never came off!
Trail shots along the way:
We had heard from Highwalker's Daughter that there were some goats and, sure enough, they were hanging around the slopes of Burnt Peak when we got there. I think they were a bit offended by our camp fire smoke/body odor so they didn't stick around for long!
We turned back around 1 PM but decided that we'll have to go back sometime to do the whole ridge since this was just a small sample of what the area has to offer. The views included Rainier, Adams, Goat Rocks and all the way north to Stuart.
On our way back down the Bethel Ridge Rd we were surprised to find the road was blocked to uphill traffic and there were several incident response vehicles heading up. My first thought was that one of the controlled burn fires had gotten out of control (since we had seen numerous smoldering fires on the way in). It wasn't until we got home and saw the news about the 410 landslide did it make sense.
When we reached the road closure signs we opted for the detour around Mt. Rainier. Oh too bad! Normally detours are a pain in the butt but I wasn't about to complain about taking a beautiful drive around my most favorite place in the world on a beautiful sunny day! My only regret was that we were trying to get home before 8 PM so I couldn't stop as much as I would have liked. But it was all good. The Mountain is absolutely gorgeous in Fall colors. Here's a sample:
Despite the long drive, I can now see that this part of the state has alot offer so my list of "must do's" has just gotten ALOT longer!
"May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am"
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"May I always be the kind of person my dog thinks I am"
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