Mount Rainier, Washington

July 8th

We were at Amar's friend Amar's grand house in Redmond, Washington by 9:30 in the evening. After a warm welcome by our host Amar and his beautiful Estonian girlfriend Hailey, and a great Indian dinner we dceided to get some food for the camping trip at Mt Rainer the next day. As always, I could sense the coming of an elaborate dinner and a very comfortable "stay" out in the wilderness.The plan was to leave the next day, no later than 9:00 in the morning. But.. we shall see:)

July 9th

So we wake up lazily the next day morning. Hailey was up at 7:30 in the morning making pancakes the estonian style. The breakfast was awesome, pancakes and pickles. We all were quick enough to leave home at 11:00 am, 3 hours behind schedule. Enroute to Mt Rainier we had to stop by host Amar's office at Microsoft to get couple printouts. After a short stop at a gas station we rode happily to the wilderness.
We reached Rainier about 1:00 pm. We drove straight up to the Cougar capmground checked out our "room" for the night. Next we drove off to Paradise literally. We wanted to hike up to the Panorama point crossing Glacier viesta on the way. Once done there, we head-off to Ohanapeacosh that has the hot-springs and the Grove of the Patriachs.
With all of Paradise under construction, we finally figured our way on to the trail head and started following that. The snow was already melting. The trail to Panorama point is beautiful to speak the least. There are beautiful wild flowers which perhaps are called Mount Rainier's high sub-alpine meadows, there are snow capped Mt St Helens, Mt Adams and Mt Rainier of which Mt St Helens is an active volcano and the others are dormant. A beautiful blend of green and white as you can see in the picture, me posing infront of Mt Rainier. We walked strutting and rollicking walking with tennis shoes on the slippery snow. We took a short lunch break at Glacier Viesta. You can see the viesta at the back-drop with Amar posing for a photograph.
From there on, the rest of us walked back, Amar and Amar walked further up to the Panorama point. We started walking down with a leisurely gait soaking the beauty abound. The Amars finally caught up with us.
From there, we drove to Ohanapeacosh where the hot springs lay, Amar's sole purpose of existance is life at that moment. On our way to the hot springs, we stopped by what is called Reflection Lake. We all tried hard to look for the reflection of Mr Rainier on Reflection Lake. The reflection teased our eyes but I did get a good shot of the lake.
Hot Springs was nothing more than a small rivulet flowing over the ground. I was nevertheless excited to feel the warm water. While poeple were getting tired and hungry they accomodated my request to stop by the Grove of the Patriachs, an old growth forest with Douglas firs, and red wood cedars about 1000 years old. I couldnot see much of it. Perhaps next time.
We reached the camp-ground after about a 1/2 hour drive. We immediately set to work. The women were busy with food and the men with lighting the fire. Once our tents were pitched and air mattressed inflated and we felt perfectly at home in the wilderness, we all got busy with cooking. Hailey was very well-prepared right down to carrying the cork-opener for the beer boottles. Amar cooked the chicken and the rest of us took our turn cooking soup, noodles, salad etc. The food tasted amazing. We had panochias too. It was a full moon night and a very comfortable summer night. Mt Rainier was basking in the silver glory. We had plans to walk around after dinner. But the Amars' were too tired and a little bit drunk. And so the evening ended. Tomorrow was the big day, the soccer world cup finals. The plan was to leave early and catch as much of the game as possible.