8/3: Mt. Rainier

After our day trip to Vancouver yesterday, we drove 2hrs from Seattle to Mt Rainier today. And 2hrs back. All to spend about 3hrs there. Some would say that’s stupid. Even I thought we were el stupido at one point. But it proved to be well worth it in the end.

The hike was to Eunice Lake and Tolmie Lookout, roughly 5miles. We started at Mowich Lake, which had the clearest lake water we’d ever seen.

(Apparently brown isn’t the norm. Sorry, Poconos.) It was as if the Caribbean was plopped in the center of a mountainous tree-lined pool. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. That is, until I saw Mt. Rainier in the distance. The combination of the pristine lake surrounded by lush greenery with massive Rainier in the distance took my breath away. It was like one of those cheesy nature calendar photos. (No offense to anyone who has one.)

Meanwhile we hadn’t even begun the hike to Eunice Lake. Unfortunately, I never made it. About half way up the buzz started. It started with a single bee. Then it went to two. I’m not usually the screaming type when it comes to bees. But when two went to three and three went to four, I started flailing like a little girl. Then the mosquitoes joined. The bugs were a swarmin. At first they were just around me like I was frickin Pig Pen. Then they found Doug too.

Everyone we flailed passed along the way told us the bugs were worse up at Lake Eunice. It wasn’t until the woman with 20 welts on her arm passed that I decided to do an about-face.

I flailed most of the way back down to the Lake, walking stick in one hand, swatting branch in the other. And when I got back to pristine Mowich Lake, I found a spot on a rock, plopped my feet in the water and wondered why I ever left.

Meanwhile, Doug continued on and hiked to Eunice Lake and got more amazing shots.

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