Permit, rations, and bicycles--A prologue

If being at the ranger station 2 hours early was good for friend, Jaal insisted that being there 3 hours early was even better. We left Tacoma at 3 a.m. Jaal drove in the dark and by 4:30 I pulled my sleeping bag to the bench and front of the Rangers station for two more hours of sleep, having driven to Tacoma at 9pm, and only returned to Seattle the night before, at midnight, mind you, from a trip East.

Mount Rainier National Park Longmire Wilderness Information Center

The pre-dawn light was beautiful and at 6:30 our first fellow hiker joined us on the stone stairs. Diane was from Chicago, and had stayed the night with her mom in the Longmire Inn, walking over with her full pack, ready to go.
I noticed she had Red Fraggle strapped to her pack and asked her about it. "Family rule", she said, "Never hike alone. So I always bring a buddy." She is a pre-K teacher and this would be her second attempt at circumnavigating Rainier. Her mom would help her drive around rations, while day hiking for a few days.

When the doors opened at 7:30 on Thursday morning, we were first in line. Ranger Rachel helped us with our permit, 20 minutes of problem solving and clicking drop-down menus from a clunky 90's computer program. Finally, we had something. She smiled. Our dream plan, the one we had submitted in March, was to start at Mowich and go clockwise for 14 days. Ranger Rachel switched the trail head start, and our direction, to give us nearly all of our camp choices, and help us meet our goal: to hike around the mountain, to go slow, to enjoy The Wonderland Trail. Plus, our permit would start Friday. That gave us the whole day to mellow into things, drive our rations around, and communicate our logistics to others at home. In planning more, we headed back into the ranger station to look at the relief map and trace our route up and over bumps and blue river lines. I also noticed a night skies program for Friday night at Cougar Rock Camp where we'd be staying. Opportunities await!

We left Longmire for Carbon River. It didn't take long to start noticing the cyclists climbing up hill to Longmire. After a huge peloton, I realized today was RAMROD. 155 mile bike tour around the mountain. Closer to Eatonville, I noticed 4 women cycle -touring in our direction. I rolled down the window and cheered them on as we passed them. Then not too long after, they walked into the Eatonville bakery, where we were having second break fast. These gal friends from Texas and Georgia were on a week long tour from Spokane to Seattle. This was their fourth annual trip of the kind, traveling domestically and riding for a week together. Of course, we talked and talked about touring and warm showers, and my transition from tarmac last summer to dirt and wildflowers this summer. Being from the south, they didn't find the heat to unbearable today. The hottest part of the day was yet to come.

Me and the gaggle of gals riding from Spokane to Seattle.

The volunteer ranger at White River Ranger Station taking our cache.

Cashing are food at the Carbon River Ranger station and the White River Ranger station was pretty easy. We were happy to learn this morning that park rangers would actually be driving them up to are pick up location (Sunrise, and Mowich Lake) due to limited space. We had thought would camp Thursday night at the White River campground, but by the time we had stopped in Enumclaw at Taco Time and for huckleberry ice cream at Wapato Woolies in Greenwater, all the first come first serve car camping sites were full. So we looked at the map. We found a very small campground just 0.4 miles off of the road halfway between white River and Stevens Canyon. We walked back into the Ranger station and ask for a permit, got it and headed back down the road.

As we packed up to head into our overnight camp, we caught the tail end riders for RAMROD. I cheered them on with Allez allez!, and high fives while running along side them through the car pull-out. One rider said her Garmin was reading 99 degrees Fahrenheit. I knew exactly how she felt, having been there a year ago, crossing the Canadian Rockies with the tarmac reading 42 degrees Celsius. I've been there knowing that just a little encouragement from a stranger can go a long way for motivation. I was motivated by these riders for my own dirt and wildflowers adventure.

And just like that, after months of planning, and a day of logistics, and a 15 minute hike, by quarter to five pm I was sitting along Chinook Creek resting in the shade and enjoying the nature, the stillness, and the beauty of Mount Rainier National Park. From my mossy seat, in a rock carved just for me, I really couldn't help but think it ironic that I ran into four cycling women and a plethora of RAMROD riders today of all days. As if I was being reminded to take all the lessons from the spokeandstories adventure into this one.

Deer Creek Falls