Back in Seattle... for a couple of days at least.

We finished up our stay near Mt. Rainier on Friday by driving to the south side of the park to Reflection Lake, taking a few photos and then hiking the Pinnacle Peak trail... I should really say climbing the trail.  It is 1.4 miles long and 1300' of climbing to the saddle where the maintained trail ends.  It is pretty much like walking a stair stepper all the way, but of course great views of Mt. Rainier, the wild flowers, waterfalls, and eventually Mt Adams to the south when you reach the end of the trail.

The last half mile or so of the hike was traversing a rock slide several times.  A lot of work went into building and maintaining this trail.  At one point there is at least a 200' section of trail where a 5' high retaining wall was built with the rock.

More Photos of the hike...

Trail cut into the rock slid

After we finished the hike on Pinnacle Peak trail, we drove on to Paradise Lodge which we could see from the trail.  We had pretty much run out of food by this point of our 3 day stay.  From our condo, it was about 30 miles to a grocery store and 15 miles to a really small convenience store.   It was very crowded at Paradise and no place to park, so we moved on to Longmire Lodge a few miles down the road.  It was also crowded, but were able to park and buy a prepackaged sandwich for lunch.  We grabbed a quick bite and headed on out of the park on the southwest side.

After we got back to Jim and Heidi's house in Seattle, they suggested we go to the Mariners game since they were playing Heidi's home town team, the Minnesota Twins.  We had never been to Safeco Stadium and really enjoyed the game.  Too bad the Twins didn't win.  No matter... we all had fun and enjoyed the experience.

It is sad to say we are into our last week of our travel on this trip, but we have another good few days planned.  Tomorrow we meet up with our friends Jason and Marci from Kansas City for a few days in Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula.  We met them 5 years ago on a Bicycle Adventures tour of the San Juan Islands.  We have done several bike trips with them since.  This time will be a little different since they now have a new member of the family, Harper who is 18 months.  We are planning to revisit a couple of rides we did on our San Juan trip... Hurricane Ridge which is a 17 mile, 5000' climb and a ride out to Crescent Lake, the most beautiful lake we never got to see and one of our most memorable rides together.  

Another couple on the trip had honeymooned at Crescent Lake and swore it was the most beautiful lake they had ever seen.  The 6 of us had taken an early ferry from Vancover, BC to Port Angeles to do the ride while the rest of the tour stayed behind with the support van.  As we started out, the thunderheads had started to build.  We got a few miles down the road and it was pouring rain.  By the time we reached the lake, we were soaked, the fog had settled over the lake to the point you could hardly see the shore line from 20' away and we were at least 15 miles from town with no support.  We slogged our way back to town while the logging trucks soaked us with their spray.  Everybody had a good laugh and really enjoyed the epic adventure.  Hopefully, we get to see the lake this time.