Mt. Rainier

Maggie approves of the stuffed mountain goat
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You may have forgotten, but Maggie and Anna might be the least decisive people you know.  We’re the least decisive people WE know, anyway.  When we got to Mt. Rainier, we knew we wanted to do a low-key 2 night backpacking trip, but we weren’t sure where.

To hit the Ranger station right when it opened we decided to get up early, but accidentally awoke at the crack of pre-dawn (Maggie’s alarm malfunctioned… when she tried to drag Anna out of bed at “7 am”, Anna rolled over, squinted at her watch a few times and then determined in her sleepy stupor that it was actually 5 am).  After getting up at the correct time, we hassled the poor Ranger with our indecisions and deliberations, then headed out on a 12 mile loop to get a great look at some glaciers.

this huge bridge crosses one of the glacially-fed rivers in the backcountry
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There was a massive flood last November, so giant chunks of the trail were wiped out and there were huge swathes of devastation.  It was very impressive in a different way than we usually associate with national parks...totally unlike anything else we've seen.