[awilsondc]

My dad, uncle, and cousin invited me on a three day backpacking trip to Packwood Lake to fulfill my cousin's backpacking merit badge requirements for scouts. I didn't have three days free, but was able to join them for the middle day of their trip. I figured I'd squeeze in a sunrise hike before joining up with the, and picked Second Burroughs up at the Sunrise side of Mount Rainier. I gotta say, Sunrise lives up to it's name! It's a great place to see a sunrise! I hit the trail with maybe 75 minutes to go before sunrise and started hiking. The trail up to Second Burroughs is pretty easy. Easy to follow in the dark, and easy on the legs. I was once again astonished how much ambient light that mountain reflects. The thing was very clearly visible a full hour before sunrise. Not much need for a headlamp, and I soon turned mine off. I got distracted several times taking photos, but managed to stay on task more or less, but didn't quite reach Second Burroughs by official sunrise. No big deal, as the terrain was completely open the entire way up. I spent about 45 minutes on the summit before heading down. I kinda wanted to head over to Third Burroughs, but had to meet up with my family so I skipped it. I did however take the loop route down past Shadow Lake. 3 hr 15 min round trip. Here are the snaps: Dawn

Trail in 1

Trail in 2

Fremont and Glacier at Dawn

First rays of light on the mountain

Nearing the Horizon

Sunrise

Progression of Light - Rainier

Dawn

First Light

Alpenglow

Waving to orbs

Golden Hour

Golden Hour

Rainier

Little Tahoma

Glacier Peak and Fremont Lookout

River 1

Shadows and Light

Second Burroughs Shelter

Take only photographs and leave only footprints

River 2

Trail

Privy

Shadow Lake

Sunburst Refletion

Last look back at Rainier

After sunrise I stopped at the Mobile station in Packwood for some food. They had an imitation Subway so I grabbed a sandwich and scarfed it down during the short drive to the trailhead. I said I would meet them around noon, and I was late so I charged through the mostly flat 4.5 miles to the lake in an hour ten where I found my Dad waiting for me at their camp site. My uncle and cousin and already started up towards Lost Lake, our destination for the day. Being a good lad, I had backed up a six pack for later that night. We got that chilling in some water and started up the trail. It was slow going on the trail. A couple minutes hiking, a couple minutes rest, plenty of time for catching up! It quickly became clear that Lost Lake probably wasn't going to happen, but figured we could at least make it up to Mosquito Lake. Right before we got to the lake, we ran into my Uncle and Cousin. They also had decided to call it a day at Mosquito Lake. My dad and I went up to check it out and they waited for us. Mosquito Lake was pretty... dumb. Really nothing to see. We turned right around and hiked back down as a foursome. Back at camp we spent the last couple hours of the day sipping on cold IPA and chatting. After the sun went down I packed up and hiked out in the dark. It was a wonderful day! All total ~21 miles 4100 gain. Packwood Lake

Packwood Lake Outlet

Goat Rocks Wilderness

Packwood Lake

Agnes Island

[GaliWalker]

Great shots! I liked the two Freemont Lookout shots, "River 2" and the last one the most.