The Cliffs of Iansanity!!

If you've seen The Princess Bride, then you know what my little play on words is all about. If not...go watch the movie.

This weekend was Ian's very first true backpacking expedition! We headed to the northwest corner of Mt. Rainier National Park and biked/hiked up the Carbon River to our campsite at Ipsut Creek.

This campsite was deliberately chosen because of the 5 mile bike ride in, rather than a hike. The uphill ride there really wasn't too bad, the downhill ride on the way was awesome!

You can see the road we followed to the campsite in the photo of Ian, above. The road is closed to automobile traffic due to multiple washouts along the way. The river is a glacial braided river, and as such tends to reclaim portions of the river valley to include the (former) roadway. Landslides and river washouts push big rocks into the roadway in places, forcing us to walk from time to time. But all in all this was a pleasant ride to and from the campsite, five miles upriver from the car.

We got to the campground and set up our tents. It was a nice break from the weight of the backpacks, which Ian really enjoyed by running around and exploring. There were a bunch of bicyclist/campers here, it seems like a pretty popular place to do that sort of thing. Even so, the campground was nowhere near full. It felt like we practically had the place to ourselves.

Ian and I then started our hike up the trail towards Carbon Glacier. Its terminus is the lowest in the US, only 3.5 miles away. A little more than halfway there Ian and I encountered a black bear having his/her dinner on the trail. A couple came up behind us. The bear knew we were there, but didn't make any real move for a minute or two, then looked like he was going to come our way. Another couple approached the bear from the other direction on the trail which pushed the bear towards us. At that time, both me and one of the other people on our side of the trail pulled out our bear spray and slowly started walking back up the way we had come. After about ten minutes, the people from the other side came through and said the bear had moved about 20 feet off the trail. Ian's feet were sore and he wanted to go back to the campsite for dinner, which we did. So we missed the glacier, but we got to see a bear. Fair trade, I'd say.

We both went to sleep shortly after dinner and slept pretty well. We checked out a waterfall nearby camp (near the photo of the two of us "holding" up that tree) and then came back to pick up our bikes. The ride down was very quick. We stopped only to take in another short hike to see the falls above (Chenuis Falls), and then made our way back home. 

We were blessed with beautiful weather Saturday, and only very light rain on the way out today. This was a great first backpacking trip for Ian! Hopefully he is hooked and will be my backpacking buddy for quite some time to come. Happy summer,

Marc