Burrough's Mountain trail

I was suppose to write about this in the last blog entry, but I got totally carried away by the thought that this may as well be my last hike in the north-west.

So anyway, it was a perfect way to end the summer. We started around 11:30 from Srijan's place after my 10 mile run in Kirkland, with the apprehension that we are not going to get a campsite. But of course I could not start early, needed to run. The trip was especially great for me as I got to carry my telescope out to Mt. Rainier. 405 was as usual quite crowded, once we were on 167, it got better. On the way we called the campground, and a lady told us that its full. What a disappointment. Still with some hope we continued onwards, checking out a campground on the way. Once at White Water Campground, to our surprise it was quite empty, and to more surprise, Palani and party who were ahead of us were no where in sight. After pondering over what to do for 30 min, we decided to take a campsite and then go looking for others. We drove to sunrise point, and there it was, the magestic Rainier, standing there with all its beauty, unobstructed view. If I was not so tired, I would have enjoyed the view much better. But I just wanted to get back to the camp and relax and eat something. Still no sign of Palani and party, so we decided to go back to the campsite and wait for them there. Luckily on the way back, we met them. Then started a discussion about which campground to take, Shayon and Palani were much taken by another one outside the park, but I wanted to stick to White Water, not wanting to waste time driving up and down. So ultimately we stayed there only. ( I AM a control freak, as Palani mentioned twice later. )

Once all back at the campsite, we setup the tent. Shayon leant his first lesson at setting up the tent and did quite a good job of it. Srijan was as usual busy being the cook. Palani and Aparajita got firewood. Perfect example of teamwork, I should suggest this for our next team offsite. After lot of effort and usual shouting from Palani, the fire started. For some reason unknown to me Aparajita got the credit for starting it ;). Maybe because she was most excited about grilling potato. Khichdi was also ready by then, and we all ate happily. Potato grilling never happened though.

After dinner was the best part, start gazing, finally after a long long time, looking at the stars thru the telescope without light pollution. It was a moonless and planet less night, which sort of disappointed others I guess. But I was thrilled to see so many stars again, being able to read in star light again, brought back lot of memories of nights spent on top of clock tower gazing at the stars. After spending some 1/2 hr there, we came back to the campsite. Fire was burning heartily and it was time for cards. We again played judgement, Shayon winning the game, sometimes I get the feeling that he is indeed smart :), not that winning at judgement is any measure of smartness in real life. We finally slept at about 1, deciding to get up at 4:30. The burden to wake everyone up was on me.

And I did a great job :), everyone was up by 4:50. We quickly paked up a bit and then started for sunrise point in Palani's car. On the way I saw Orion and Venus, nothing like the site of planet of love first thing in the morning. We were at sunrise point while it was still a bit dark. First we tried to cook maggie, but there was no matchbox to light the stove, Srijan's planning, huh. So we had a breakfast of bread, jam etc. And we also saw the first rays of sun falling on Mt. Rainier, making it all colourful. It was a amazing site, beautiful!!
...from dark to dawn...

Once Mt Rainier was fully lit, and our stomachs were full, we started on the 7 mile hike. The hike was quite good, very steep uphill in the beginning, but the distance was not too much, about 3 miles. The sight on top of burrough one and two were very rewarding. On the way we crossed very windy paths, wind blowing thru its full force, nothing to bind it, something I just love. Makes you feel so free, away, connected to the nature. All my tiredness was gone, it was lovely. One of the things on my TODO list is to kiss on top of a mountain with wind blowing all around us, muy romantico!
On top of burrough two, we were as close to Rainier as you can get, unobstructed view, just wow! The trail reminded me so much of Inca trail, partly as I was very tired, leg aching, and the uphill hike, looking at further uphill trail ahead, reminded me how it was climbing Dead Woman's Pass. And then the steep descend in the end.

Then was the difficult decision, go up to burrough 3 or not. It looked very steep intimidating. If my leg was not aching so much, I would have loved the challenge. But after 10 mile run on Saturday, I did not have the courage, and well, had to drag everyone else also with me. Feeling pretty bad about that, it does not happen often :(
Anyway, we stared 4 mile downhill trail, loosing about 3000'. By the end I was totally exhausted, just moving moving moving. Finally reached the campsite. Packed really fast. Decided to cook hakka noodles after a lot of arguments. People actually wanted to mix hakka noodles with maggie, can you believe it, dilute the taste of maggie with something else!!
Anyway, we made noodles, ate, packed and then started back to civilization. I was dead tired by the time we came back in Redmond and all I wanted to do was put my head down and sleep sleep sleep.