Happy #Hikeathon! Wow, I've never seen so many people at Sunrise Point at 6:30am on a Sunday! I came up on a Friday at 6:30am a few weeks ago and it was deserted compared to today! Our group of Mountaineers met at Sunrise Point to do a car shuttle hike from there to Dege Peak, then along Sourdough Ridge to Frozen Lake, and back to the lodge. I could hardly pull into Sunrise Point because people were parked in front of the entrances. Myself and another hiker took my car up to the main parking area, where the entire paved lot was already full. I ended up parking in one of the last spots in the dirt overflow parking area. I felt bad for the people with 7am reservations - I suspect that the system is forcing people into coming early.
Anyway, the hike! We completed a 6.3mi trek with 1100ft of elevation gain according to my Gaia tracker. We hiked up to Dege Peak from Sunrise Point, then took Soughdough Ridge to Frozen Lake. Our initial plan was to loop around using the service road, but we found a sign saying it was closed and would be another 2.7mi to the parking lot via Shadow Lake. So, we opted to turn around and backtrack. What a beautiful trail! It was much less busy from Dege Peak to the junction with the trail from the parking lot and we got some amazing views of Mt. Adams, Goat Rocks, Glacier Peak, and (we think) Mt. Baker. The only annoying part was dealing with the swarm of flies up at the summit of Dege Peak. Be sure to wear your bug spray if you go up there! They weren't really a problem otherwise. Unfortunately we didn't see much wildlife, just a chipmunk and we heard some marmots whistling. All in all it was a great day on Mt. Rainier!
If anyone feels inclined, you can support my Hike-a-Thon here: https://give.wta.org/fundraiser/6493127
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