On the afternoon of Monday, July 31, 2023, Andy, Kathrin, Sean, and I continued our daylong visit to Mount Rainer National Park. We had just completed a wonderful hike and had eaten lunch on the trail. For the afternoon, we decided to go up to Sunrise on the Mountain’s northeast side. Then some would head home and others of us would continue to hang out in Seattle.
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On Monday, July 31, 2023, Andy, Kathrin, Sean, and I spent the day at Mount Rainier National Park. Our primary goal had been to get up on the mountain early and do “one great hike.” One route that a friend of Kathrin had recommended, the Tipsoo Lake and Naches Peak Loop, had a five-star rating with an easy-to-moderate difficulty rating in my hiking guide. It seemed perfect, and in fact it was.
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Sean and I have liked Seattle ever since we first visited with Kathrin in 2012. As far back as our flight through SEA-TAC to get to Glacier National Park, we’d talked about wanting to return for a proper visit, particularly since Kathrin now lived there. The previous year, I’d just barely spent a little time in Seattle proper (although I’d driven through it a few times on that trip). Now it was time for me to sit down, stay a while, stay a week and a half, with multiple friends.
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Flying into Seattle from Chicago on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, I was able to see all three of Washington’s National Parks. And I would continue to glimpse them in the week and a half before we actually set foot on Mount Rainier. Meanwhile, Bold Bison was out there to be with a client, and Patrick and I had work to do. But we also made time for a really fine day hike up on the flanks of Mount Baker, right on the doorstep of North Cascades National Park.
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In July 2023, I had to return to Washington State for work. Bold Bison would be with a client for a week. It wasn’t, by any means, a reprise of the thirty-five days I’d spent on the road in the summer of 2022, but it was a nice chance to be in the Pacific Northwest in the middle of summer. The year before, flights had been very pricey with the first, halting reopening of post-COVID summer travel. So Sean hadn’t been able to join me. But in 2023, I decided to stay in Seattle after wrapping up on-site client work and have a mix of remote work and downtime at an AirBnB. Sean would join me. As would Andy, then Dan, then Angela. We’d get to see Seattlites, Kathrin and James and Malia and other Sean.
And we’d finally check Mount Rainier National Park off our list.
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On Tuesday, July 26 [2022], I continued my solo circumnavigation of the Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park. This was both my second visit to Olympic and only the second time I’d visited a National Park alone. (The first was the previous November when I stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park for a hike on my drive home from New Mexico). The first time I’d visited Olympic (a decade earlier in April 2012), it had been with Sean and Kathrin. But on that day too we did a day of highlights on a long drive between Portland and Seattle. Someday, I’ll visit Olympic and stay a while.
That April day with Kathrin and Sean, the weather had been more expected (cool, rainy). But on this late July day, it was 90 degrees at Hoh Rainforest, my next stop. It made for a completely different experience.
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On Sunday, July 15 [2022], Bold Bison continued an epic journey from West Coast client to West Coast client by flying from San Diego to Washington State. Patrick would only be there four days, but I would be there for over a week and a half. Along with a bunch of adventures and a lot of good work, I ended the trip with a day at Olympic National Park, the park that Sean and I visited just second on this whole National Park odyssey.
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On July 31, a Tuesday, our journey to Montana began with a 5:20pm flight from O’Hare to…Seattle. Then we’d continue on to Great Falls. Sean and I both worked from home until it was time to head to the airport. And we both were stressed tying up some final things before the trip. Our stress continued on the way to the airport in a Lyft. Traffic was extremely heavy, and we’d left later than we’d wanted to because of work stuff.
We’re rethinking Mount Rainier. While it is the most accessible, in some ways, during our trip to Portland and Seattle next month, it is also the least accessible in others. I had been prepared for there to still be a lot of snow on the ground, and that we’d essentially be driving into the park up to where the road is closed at Paradise to look at the scenery, etc. In my mind, I’d likened it to the trips to Park City we’d taken when I was younger. Snow? Mountains? No problem.
In digging further, though, apparently all vehicles entering the park are required to carry tire chains until May 1, a big problem with a rental car. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think that it would be going to the park at about the least optimal time of year just to say we’d done it. Advice from a friend in Seattle had some impact on this thinking.
So, we’re going to a different park, which I think will be much more rewarding, and which won’t alter our larger travel plans at all: