Ipsut Pass, Carbon River, Carbon Glacier, Seattle Park, Spray Park

I could have been at work. I thought about going to work. But, the weather forecast said it'd be nice for the next two days, so I made the right choice and took too days of vacation to go backpacking. A couple of destinations presented themselves as options, each, coincidentally next to a volcano. In the end, my volcano of choice was the big one, Rainier.

Though my choice of destination was made the day-of, the genesis of my Tahomian expendition came a couple of weeks earlier. After seeing several trip reports lauding the virtues of Spray Park, I decided to head up there one weekend. Unfortunately, by the big day, Spray Park was listed as WTA's Hike of the Week. It also turned out to be a free-entrance weekend. The net effect of all this was that by the time I made it to the trailhead, there were cars lined up for at least a mile down the road. "Forget it," said I, "I shall go elsewhere." So, elsewhere (Paul Peak to Mowich River) I went. That's not really the point. The point is that in surveying other destinations, I took note of the fact that a neat little loop could be made by hiking from Mowich Lake to the Carbon River and them back up through Seattle and Spray Parks. A hiking trip is born.

Enough history, back to the story. I left home at about 9:00 and, mistakenly thinking that I could get an overnight permit at the Paul Peak pay area, made it to Paul Peak by 11:15. No permits there...go to the Carbon River Ranger Station, said the sign. So, there I went. My plan was to camp at Cataract Camp, about 1.5 miles and 1400' up from the Carbon River. But, to my chagrin, Cataract was already full up for the night, as was the lower Carbon River Camp, my 2nd choice. Dick Creek, a mile out of my way up the Carbon Glacier trail was open when I walked into the Ranger Station, but the lady in front of me in the Ranger Station queue snapped up the last spot there. Fortunately, however, she was a very nice gal and allowed me to join her "party" that night. Whew...I had a place to pitch my tent! My new campmate was doing a big loop up through Sunrise and other places. She was going to head through Spray Park first, and I was planning to head out via Ipsut Pass/Carbon River, so we exchanged see-ya-at-camp's and parted ways.

I returned to the Mowich Lake trailhead, parked, hoisted my pack, and, determined to save dessert for last, set off towards Ipsut Pass and the Carbon River at about 2:30. Ipsut Pass (5100') is a pretty interesting place. You climb very gently on the approach, but right at the passm the trail drops away quickly as you switchback down a very steep meadowy slope wedged between dramatic cliffs. It leaves and impression. There were a good number of wild flowers in the meadow, though it was pretty overgrown and very buggy. Down, down, down the trail went, eventually plunging into forest, and in a few miles out onto the Carbon River trail (2600').

From there it was a gentle climb up the Carbon River. Due to a washout, the river must be crossed about 1.5 miles up. There are footlogs in place, and it is actually a pretty neat crossing. Gentle climbing continued up to the famed Carbon River suspension bridge (3200'). According to my original plan, I was going to cross the bridge and head up to Cataract Camp, but since Dick Creek was now my destination, I stayed on the east side of the river and started up to Dick Creek. The camp is only a mile from the suspension bridge, but, oh yeah, also 1200' up. Fortunately views of the snout of the Carbon Glacier and Mount Rainier above open up and motivate weary legs up what would otherwise be a slog-and-a-half. I made it to camp by about 7:00, got set up and had dinner. There were some bugs, but not bad at all. Dick Creek Camp doesn't have any views of the mountains, but there's a great panoramic view about 0.1 miles down from camp, so after dinner, I hoofed it down there (encoutering my inward-bound campmate) and watched the alpineglow on the mountain. I returned to camp, chatted with my next door neighbor, and went to sleep. I was going to go check out Rainier under the moonlight, but I fell fast asleep and didn't wake up until 7:00 the next morning.

The mountain troika (morning, oatmeal, and hot chocolate) came, and soon camp was broken and I was headed back down to the suspension bridge. I made my best impression of Indiana Jones crossing the bridge, and then it was time to start climbing. I realized the night before that, thanks to my forced detour to Dick Creek that instead of only having about 1800' of elevation gain on Day 2, I would instead be faced with 3200' of gain. To keep my sanity, I mentally divided the climb into Carbon River to Cataract and Cataract to the divide between Seattle and Spray Parks. This worked well.

The climb up to Cataract was overgrown in spots and the area around Cataract camp was seriously buggy. Cataract camp is also in the woods, so no views. Between the bugs at the lack of views, the detour to Dick Creek seemed worth it. The climb continued. There were a few patches of huckleberry, some of which were ripe enough to eat (tart, but tasty). After about 3.2 miles of climbing, I broke out into Seattle Park. Seattle Park is a neat place. It lacks expansive views of The Mountain (particulary in the lower parts of the park), but it has a beautiful combination of streams cascading through lush alpine meadows, eventually giving way to higher, rockier terrian, all with great views of staggering peaks. Whilst climbung through the meadows, I saw a big ol' brown bear a ways elow. Half a mile later, I spotted a cousin of his grazing right next to the trail in front of me. I backed off and spent quite a bit of time talking to him (ok, talking AT him...he wasn't much of a conversationalist), while I waited for him to amble away. With Fozzie out of the way, I continued onward and upward. The meadows faded, the terrian became rockier, and views of Rainier (actually views in all directions) opened up the higher I went. There were a couple of short patches of icy snow toward the top, none more than 60' and all heavily cairned. Finally, I found myself at the divide (6400'). A quick sprint up the knoll and the climbing for the day was down. And the 360 degree views were tremendous. Here I ate lunch. It was 2:00 and I had been staving off hunger with some snacks, but it was worth it, because this was a great spot for drooping the pack, kicking back, and relaxing.

The descent through Spray Park was everything it was cracked up to be. The flowers are now just a smidge past their peak, but still glorious. The meadows, the flowers, the big, big views of the mountains...it would be impossible to make good time through here, you have to stop every three steps to be able to even start to take it all in. There were some bugs, but that was irrelevant. All I could think was, "what a great day to be alive!"

It is impossible to say how much time elapsed while I made my way through Spray Park. All I know is that eventually the trail dropped into forest and the dream ended. I stopped at Spray Falls and Eagle Cliffs on the way out, both were gorgeous, though they felt more grounded in reality than the dreamland above. There were plenty of bugs through here, but soon enough, I was back to Mowich Lake and the end of the journey.

That sure beat a Tuesday and Wednesday in the office...

 P.S. Spray Park is beautiful. Judging from the other trip reports out there, I didn't take any pictures that someone else hasn't already taken. Resixing photos is still a bit of a pain, so go look check out other folks' reports.