Steps in the Right Direction: Granite Peak Campsite to Sunrise Trailhead

Coffee at 6 am and on the Trail by 8am We have been pretty consistent with leaving camp 2 hours after coffee. Kathi and I get up 30 mins prior to coffee so we can get our contacts in, dressed, sleeping bags stuffed, mattress pads rolled and stuffed, backpacks prepacked. The only thing we have remaining is rolling up the wet tent...I mean tent.

This morning it does not take long to get the food bags down from the bear pole. They are light and few in number. This morning for breakfast we have oatmeal with hazelnuts and coconut flakes along with Nutella for sweetener. Tastee goodness!

Tents roll up fast as of course, they are wet, we all know that they will have to get dried out later. During breakfast and camp tear down the clouds were moving fast and had glimpses of blue sky, quickly followed by grey rain filled clouds dripping on us. We can see it snowed at around the 6000-foot level. Our landscape has a nice white furry cap on it. It certainly is chilly enough! We must have just stayed above 32 degrees overnight as we only had rain.

At this time I would like to say how thankful I am for Merino Smartwool! Both Kathi and I wore pants and long sleeve merino as PJ's in our sleeping bags. Our sleeping bags are rated to 15 degrees and we each have insulated backpacking air mattress, but the extra help with the merino SmartWool and hot water bottles really saved us!! We had brought along on our trip lighter weight long sleeves to sleep in, but as our backpacking trip drew near, we were watching the weather channel predictions for our expected temps overnight. We drove to the nearby town of Ashford and went shopping at Whittaker's. We also picked up a little boot waterproofing. LOL, turns out that you have to warm your boots to 120 degrees to get the product to soak in. I did not read the fine print! 120 degrees? not on this hike!

We peak out at 6700 feet
ascent 1453
decent 938
5 miles

As we climb the switchback up to our highest point next to Skyscraper Mountain we are teased with brief views of Mount Rainier. There is no dought that we are missing out on a spectacular view. We stop briefly at any of the breaks in the tree's to shoot some hopeful photo's. When we make it to the saddle at 6700 feet we drop our packs and use the opportunity for taking "I did it Photo's". We also looked across at Skyscraper Mountain and see the hike scramble to the top right in front of us. Perhaps a different day. I think we are all feeling the effects of the long hard days we put in. I don't know how Shelly is managing to still walk, but she does so without complaint. Dr. Judy has patched her up at the beginning and end of these past several days. To help Shelly out, we have offloaded some poundage from her pack so she can move a little easier. Shelly, of course, does not want to accept the help, but with a few tears of thanks, she finally relents. She is a woman of strong fortitude and is clearly used to being the provider of gifts rather and the receiver. Sometimes receiving help is the hardest thing to accept.

As we drop down from the saddle into our final few miles some of the clouds lift and reveal a longer view for us. We can see back into Grand Park where we were on our first day. Looking off in the distance where there was once smoke from the fire to the north, it is clear. I am sure with all of the rain the fire MUST be under control...

We stop for a group photo at a trail junction. There are several people passing through and it is easy to ask someone to take the photo for us. Then we make our way down to the end of the trail. We step off the trail together. Head to our cars to drop gear, change shoes, dress warmer and meet for lunch. Jen left today's lunch in her car so we did not have to carry it around the loop for the week. We had planned on having lunch in the snack bar/gift shop area. But it is after Labor Day and the snackbar/gift shop building is closed for the season. We move or lunch of peanut butter and jelly with chips and salsa up to the outdoor picnic tables. We share a few laughs about what will be our first purchase of new gear. All responses have something to do with keeping dryer or warmer. No surprise there.

43.1 miles
Uncountable opportunities for perseverance, finding happiness amongst the weariness, finding strength amongst friends, giving when you have something to give, accepting help when you need help, finding beauty and grandeur in the close and near.

Kathi and I drive back to Seattle, well actually we stay in Bellevue. The traffic in the Seattle area is TERRIBLE!!! Yikes!! We arrived at the hotel, checked in, took our stuff up to the room and pulled out all of the wet gear to dry. The room looked like the clothes hamper exploded in the room. Then we went out to the parking lot and pulled out the tent. I'm sure the Larkspur Landing appreciated us using the available shrubs and bushes to drape our tent over to dry. We just needed it to get dry enough to travel home. After this, we took LONG HOT SHOWERS and drove to downtown Bellevue to eat some seafood. Sleep comes easy tonight!

Things we carried around and did not use:

Camp shoes-it was too wet and muddy to use them.
Book to read-after reading two sentences I found out I had read the book previously.
Boot waterproofing-need to warm boots up to 120 degrees to work.
Tripod for camera-Always raining, could never set up a shot without camera getting soaked.
Tea to drink at night-only one day did we get to camp early enough to have tea.
Sunglasses
Sunscreen
Bug repellant

First Item Kathi and I bought from REI upon returning home:

A New raincoat! And no $300 is not too much to spend!

Other items that are a close second:

Waterproofing for boots that can be applied at any time and any temp's.
Additional Smartwool top and bottom
Looking for drybag stuff sack to put around sleeping bag stuff sack. I don't think double dry around a sleeping bag to keep it dry is too much protection.