The Journey Inward

We set off early Friday, World Cup game day in Seattle, for Mount Rainier. I had researched routes for those afraid of hikes and we found a good one!

We found street parking easily and set off on our trail, the Naches Peak Loop Trail. we quickly realized we were going the wrong way to have the Mountain View’s in front of us, but we paused and looked back often.

The trail was steep in places, but quite manageable. Then we rounded the mountain to find quite a bit of snow on the ground. With no poles and no spikes, we made our way up and down snowy, slippery slopes. At one point, I paused to make a stash of snowballs and whip them at my daughter!

From a perspective angle, it was interesting to meet people coming in the other direction who would ask if there was more snow ahead. We would each give our snow report, not knowing what the other had seen! In the end, it continually improved for us and we knew it was going to get worse for them. But a good reminder that past experiences help form your point of view.

It did become clear to me in our last passes where we had to cross snow and mud with a steep drop off to our side that there was a reason we took this way around. If I had started the hike like this, and made the assumption that the rest of it would be similar, I honestly don’t know that I could have kept going. Because I started in my comfort zone, it was difficult, but not impossible to keep going.

This hike is possibly my favorite of all time.