Skyscraper Mountain, Skyscraper Pass — Monday, Sep. 11, 2006

Mount Rainier Area > NE - Sunrise/White River

I took advantage of another gorgeous day to head back to Rainier before snow closes Sunrise next month. I wanted something a little shorter than last week's expedition to Panhandle Gap, and I'm still working my way through the hikes I haven't yet done from Ron Judd's 'Mount Rainier Day Hike!' book, so Skyscraper Pass it became. It's not considered one of the more scenic hikes in the book, though of course these things are relative.... This is an easy hike of 3.6 miles each way. It's a total of 1,300 feet elevation gain, about half on the way in and the other half back out, and never more than a moderate grade. Once past Frozen Lake, the trails were fairly quiet - no constant stream of hikers to Berkeley Park with the flowers gone. Some nice views from the pass in every direction, showing me a face of Rainier I hadn't previously seen, with the Winthrop Glacier. The air was fairly clear, with mountains fading away into a very distant haze to the north beyond Fremont. Marmots, ground squirrels and chipmunks werre all out in force along various sections of the route, making attractive company. But the highlight of the day was definitely the goats! Finally, after two years of intermittently wandering around moraine and rocky outcrops and snowfields where the things are supposed to like hanging out in summer, two mountain goats finally deigned to show themselves for me. And where did I find them? In the full sun at 2pm in the meadows on the lower slopes of Mount Fremont above Berkeley Park. I spotted them on my way down from Skyscraper Pass as white moving specks, and I've never done that climb back up towards Frozen Lake with so much energy and enthusiasm! Fortunately, they hadn't gone anywhere when I made it up to the ridge, and I got a reasonable look from a couple of hundred yards away. (Have I said before that I love my digital camera? 435mm equivalent optical zoom, without having to drag around any foot long lenses or tripods.) I thought it was a perfectly pleasant day in my shorts and T-shirt, so they must have been hot.... I didn't have any bug issues at all (apart from a few wasps at the Pass with an interest in my lunch), a very different situation from this time last year on that hike back up to Frozen Lake. It does seem to be a less buggy summer overall. There were roadworks on Highway 410, with a lane closure while they repainted centre lines. I was fortunate enough to time it right both ways, but it could delay you 10 minutes or so if you had to wait for traffic - they still had a lot of road to go yesterday afternoon, so I'd expect more of it for another day or so at least. I still can't believe the goats were perverse enough to show up like that, just when I'd given up on them again. The book said they were supposed to be at the top of the pass! More pics up at http://eelpi.livejournal.com/23375.html#cutid1