Burroughs Mountain — Friday, Jul. 17, 1998

Mount Rainier Area > NE - Sunrise/White River

My wife and I wished we had brought our ice axes with us as we carefully balanced up the slippery snow on First Burroughs Mountain. The ranger had told us that since we were former mountain climbers we could easily do it in street shoes.And, in fact, there were 60 year old women in sandals and 8 year olds in tennis shoes crossing the steep snow patch up ahead of us. Once we got on it though, we both were very aware that to slip out of the steps was to spend some time in the hospital. We had left the good boots and ice axes in the car to save weight since I was carrying my easel and paints and she had a sore back. Other than that block long section of exposed snow the trail was in excellent condition with good trail signs although dry and dusty, no water.The Mountain was breathtakingly beautiful. I always enjoy the challenge of painting the Mountain. The constantly changing light forces me to work fast and accurately. I had not realized that the light changes even faster on the North (Sunrise) side of Rainier than it does on the Paradise side. Nevertheless, I was able to get 80 percent of the way into a good painting before the fog swept up over Third Burroughs. The bugs weren't all that bad compared to some years. Going down the snow patch was hairy. I used my easel as a poor ice ax and my wife used a sharp piece of shale as an ice dagger. Perhaps we are just getting old and paranoid. The worst part of the whole trip was humping our gear out to the Sunrise walk-in campground. It's only 1.3 miles but after hiking 7 miles round trip to Second Burroughs carrying painting gear I was toast. We did enjoy seeing the resident elk, ""Bruce"". He was calmly laying in a meadow about 100 feet away. He was one of the largest elk I have ever seen, carrying immense antlers. The Ranger said ""Bruce"" has a whole harem out there but we only saw his majesty. We had a quite night in the 8 site campground. In the morning I staggered up to the camground viewpoint to paint the morning light but Rainier was fogged in for the duration. http://www.virtualalt.net/~mwebster