Camp Muir Hike

Our hike started with a 6:00 am meeting in the Y parking lot. We carpooled up to the mountain and took a little time getting set to go. This is Rob and I getting ready to start:

The weather was beautiful and very warm. As predicted, the snow started right above the parking lot. The picture below shows one of the few dry sections of the path. I'm the one in the rear.
This is a shot of one of the scary spots - there were three spots where you had room to put one foot down directly in front of the other, on snow. On the way back, we crossed one, then put our garbage bags down and slid down the slope at the second spot. I lost control and ended up backwards, with a couple minor scrapes and a bruise or two. It was actually a little fun (and a lot scary).Here's a shot of our older son, Web taking a break:

Riley chose not to join us on this trip. The next shot is us taking a break at Pebble Creek. It is where the permanent snow fields start. At this point, we've already hike through two miles of mostly snow.
Here's a shot of the summit - as you can see, there's some cloud cover up there.

This shot is Steve and I approaching Camp Muir. I was whipped - I forgot just how hard it is to breath at 10,000 feet. I was really glad that we were in for a long break.


I was hoping these pictures would clearly show the mountains in the distance. The first should be Mt. Hood, the second Mt. St. Helens, then Mt. Adams. Enlarge them and look way in the distance.
This is the whole gang - minus Rob, who sped up and down, and Eric, who is taking the picture. It was about 40 degrees at Muir, with a 30 mph wind. We didn't stay long, because it was cold.
All of the pictures were taken by Eric. We don't have any of the sliding down, because he switched over to video and I don't know how to load that up. I'll probably be posting a few more pictures over the next few days, because both Rich and Monica took a lot of shots as well. We had a great time - especially sliding down the mountain on our garbage bags. We finished up with dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the way back to town.

Going to Camp Muir is a great hike, beautiful and physically challenging. I realized yesterday that it is probably the toughest hike I'll ever do - it challenges my limits both physically and mentally. There are some scary spots to cross, and I don't ever intend to do anything that involves ropes and ice axes, so this is it for me. I don't think we'll head up that way again this summer, although, you never know. Next summer for sure!

PS. If you read Rob's blog, you'll get a few more pictures, and another version of the hike. The rest of us took about 4 hours to go the same distance that Rob went in 2:25. We probably took another 2 to 3 hours coming back down. I didn't wear a watch, so I'm not sure. It's a long day!