A hike to Camp Muir that I will never forget!

I know I know, I took forever to get around to updating my blog. This post will be backdated though, so that it fits in the timeline of the other blog posts!

Derek and I had been hoping all summer to get the chance to have a go at summiting Mount Rainier this season, but we didn’t get the skills training in and didn’t line up someone to take us up there. Instead we chose to hike the 5,000 feet to Camp Muir, this time with lots of sun protection and at a more leisurely pace. (Compared to my trip in June).

Lush, green meadows covered with wildflowers surprised us as we arrived at the Paradise Visitor’s Center. On the way up people remarked on how much snow was still left this late in the season, and I thought, “You should have seen it in June!” The snow came all the way down to the parking lot, but now we had a beautiful set of stairs and miles of steep paved trails to follow.

This was snow last time!

We had great visibility; not only Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens towered in the distance, but steep Mount Hood all the way in Oregon peeked over a single cloud.

You watch the mountain the whole way up.

This was snow last time.

Once we hit snow, I covered my face with a bandana, sunglasses and baseball cap, and kept my long sleeves and long pants on despite the warm day. I wasn’t going through the awful sunburn again! I saw a few hikers that were completely exposed and I hoped their skin would hold up okay!

Beautiful day to hike!

Stealth.

Stealth II.

We reached Camp Muir after about 3 hours and 45 minutes of hiking. It was busy up there; a few guided groups and summit-hopefuls setting up camp, and lots of hikers soaking up the sun and enjoying the view for lunch before heading back down.

View.

Camp Muir was busy!

Derek and I ate Costco muffins and drank burnt hot chocolate (ew) and chatted with a few other folks. After about 45 minutes, I thought we should start getting dressed to head back down, and Derek suggested we ask someone to take our photo first. As we stood up, I noticed a rectangular box in his pocket, and asked if he brought his GoPro camera up. He gave me a silly look and said “no…” I thought of what else it could be – and knew what I was in for in the next coming moments! We gave the camera to a lady and as we stepped back for the photo, Derek turned toward me and dropped to his knee! The rest is on video below ; ) (Turn up your volume… it’s hard to hear).

Happy

The rest of the hike was great, and we heard the lady who videoed it for us telling the story on the way down. It was fun to be famous for an afternoon! The ring he gave me is actually his grandmother’s ring and it came with a matching wedding band. We had the ring resized and it’s perfect. We plan to design custom wedding bands that kinda match, while incorporating the 10 diamonds from his grandmother’s band.