Mowich Lake | Mount Rainier Snowshoeing

since our fall camping/hiking trip to mowich lake, we often conversed about heading back to do some snow camping. with being on a weekend schedule of snowshoe, ski, snowshoe, ski...etc, we had the weekend to 'scope' out the route.

after checking our maps, books, and internet resources, we found that 'theoretically' we could drive up to the park boundary, then snowshoe ten miles round trip up to the camp site and back. looks great on a chalk board doesn't it?!

after eleven miles of this snow covered mud and gravel road, we reached a point to where we didn't think we should proceed. the snow deepened and the frequency of people [normally a good thing] diminished, we decided to halt our adventure with four wheel drive and continue on foot via snowshoes.

moments after buckling up our snowshoes and setting off, a full size truck came rolling through, plowed into the deeper snow, and quickly stopped. as we jaunted by, lofting on top of the snow, my heart and head had a quick discussion about what it meant to value people over myself. my heart won. we unbuckled our snowshoes and helped dig the snow out from around the family's tires. we tried to push but the heavy, four wheel drive, V-8 truck was stuck. after another heart to head discussion, our xterra was hooked up via tow strap to the beast-of-an-american-truck, and we were pulling it free...in the deep snow.

the way i looked after andrea told me what a man
i was. she said, 'did you see how you just pulled
that big-ass truck out of there?!'

after an hour and a half of vehicle extraction we were finally on our way snowshoeing to one of our favorite camping spots.

we hiked about three miles in uneven, rutted, icy snow, when we rounded a bend to a beautiful vista. i, brooke, was happy to arrive as my leg was in some pain. i guess i'm feeling the pains of getting old?!

for mom k: even though i was in pain, there's always a smile for a wide-open-mouth photo.

although i didn't feel like going one step further, andrea sweetly encouraged me to keep going. she felt that the entrance to the park was right around the next bend. what do you know...it was!

she was rather happy!

with daylight fading, we quickly head back three miles to the car, stopping only for the necessities: water, me to rest my leg [and swear a little], and photos.

just as darkness closed in around us we arrived back at our truck. we were tired, i was in pain. but the whole trip was worth it.

now back down the mountain with the hopes we won't get stuck...as it was way after dark and no one was around!