Mt Rainier Backpacking Trip & Bainbridge Island Bike Trip

View from Bainbridge Ferry

Shaun and I have been trying to enjoy the last bit of summer weather before we go into hibernation for the winter. It always seems like winter comes close on the heels of autumn, so I'm already bracing myself for the shock of cold and rain. 

Shaun has a 3-week break between summer and autumn quarter, so we've been taking advantage of it by going on a 1 night backpacking trip to Mt Rainier last weekend, and a short bike trip around Bainbridge Island this weekend. Here's some pictures and details from our peregrinations!

Mt Rainier Backpacking Trip

The backpacking trip was awesome. We drove to the Longmire entrance near Paradise, in the southwest corner of the park. I'd never been to Mt Rainier before, and it had been years since Shaun's last trip. On Saturday, the sky was partly cloudy and the air was a bit chilly, around 50 degrees. We set out in the brisk morning air, hiking along the Wonderland Trail from Longmire to Pyramid Creek, over Ramparts Ridge, to Devil's Dream camp. 

There we pitched our tent and set up camp. We arrived in the mid-afternoon. The sun was starting to show in full force, so we took advantage of the great weather to continue our hike up 1.2 miles to Indian Henry's Meadow. We got there at the perfect time to see Mt Rainier's summit in full view! 

The contrast in terrain between Devil's Dream and Indian Henry's Meadow is stark: Devil's Dream is stuck in the Douglas Fir, Hemlock, and Pacific Silver Fir forests like the majority of the trail from Longmire is, but once you step around the bend towards Indian Henry's Meadow, you enter the sub-alpine forest. It's replete with autumnal colors, sub-alpine fir, open meadows, and breathtaking views of the summit. 

At the meadow, we stopped at the cabin to chat with the ranger, and saw a female Blue Grouse and her brood. They like hanging around the cabin since there are fewer predators there. We continued on a bit to Mirror Lakes, which is not too exciting, but we did get to see a whole meadow full of Dark-Eyed Juncos. 

On Sunday, there was rain off and on throughout the early morning, so we booked it out of there and headed back for the trailhead. On the way home, we stopped for lunch and blackberry pie at Copper Creek Inn - the perfect ending to a great trip.

Bainbridge Island Bike Trip

On a glorious sunny Saturday in Seattle, we biked from our house to the Bainbridge ferry. Even though I've been there before and Bainbridge is only a short ferry ride from Seattle, I was a pleasantly reminded of how different island life is from city life. We rode through residential streets from the ferry terminal to Bainbridge Island Vineyards, and so I got to see some of the neighborhoods and quiet streets. Many of the houses are much newer, while some of them look very established. I was surprised by how many families with young children were on the island. 

 The vineyard had some delicious organic wines, and we had to the place to ourselves since it had just opened up for the day. The farmers had just finished a harvest, so we got to see huge baskets of grapes out front. 

We continued on to the Bainbridge Island Brewery. Shaun liked their IPA and I thought their Kölsch wasn't too bad, especially with the most amazing soft pretzel ever. We relaxed on the patio, reading our books - Shaun was reading Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, and I The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux.

Then we headed back to the main drag, where we got sandwiches at Hitchcock Deli. The main street, Winslow, is always busy, particularly when it's a sunny Saturday. There was also a quilt show going on. We munched, people-watched, and then hopped back on our bikes and returned to the ferry. Our bike trip turned out to be more of a foodie trip, since we stopped to eat practically every 5 miles. That's my kind of bike trip :-)