Pinnacle Peak...My Favorite Valley

https://picasaweb.google.com/katacarroll/PinnacleSaddle92013 The most beautiful Valley I've ever seen... If you are at Paradise at Mt. Rainier looking at the Tatoosh Mountain Range in the distance, Pinnacle Peak at 6562 ft. is one of many in the range jutting up into the sky in a Tolkeinesque scene of rugged beauty. http://peakbagger.com/range.aspx?rid=125136. We hiked up so far it hurt and was dangerous actually at points. Interesting that we saw more Amanita mushrooms here than ever before....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria and Wiki has to say, "Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a poisonous and psychoactive basidiomycete fungus, one of many in the genus Amanita. Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, Amanita muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the southern hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees. The quintessential toadstool, it is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, usually red mushroom, one of the most recognisable and widely encountered in popular culture. Several subspecies with differing cap colour have been recognised, including the brown regalis (considered a separate species), the yellow-orange flavivolvata, guessowii, formosa, and the pinkish persicina. Genetic studies published in 2006 and 2008 show several sharply delineated clades that may represent separate species.

Although it is generally considered poisonous, there are few documented human deaths from its consumption, and after having been parboiled it is eaten as a food in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. Amanita muscaria is noted for its hallucinogenic properties, with its main psychoactive constituent being the compound muscimol. The mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the peoples of Siberia, and has a religious significance in these cultures. There has been much speculation on possible traditional use of this mushroom as an intoxicant in places other than Siberia, but such traditions are far less well documented. The American banker and amateur ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson proposed that the fly agaric was the soma of the ancient Rig Veda texts of India; since its introduction in 1968, this theory has gained both followers and detractors in anthropological literature.[1]"

Along the way, we passed Washington Trail Association volunteers maintaining the trail. Thanking them profusely, we learn that Jen, the trail-boss, works all over and she looks up to the task.If you're drawn to this path of service to the World, volunteer here: http://www.wta.org/

Further up toward the peak, streams degrade the trail to the point we're walking through them so this work is necessary. Donn takes a minute to divert the flow off the trail.

On the way down the peak, we had to grab tree limbs to keep from going over the edge around a few corners- very dangerous...but then whom do we meet at the descent but Charlie, dubbed by a fellow-hiker on the trail down.

He is the friendliest wild creature I've EVER met and he ate almonds (which I halved with my teeth) out of my hand. Biting me once on accident, he ran, realizing his breach of trust. "It's okay sweetheart; come get the other half..." and he is right there again. But get this...when I leave, he RUNS after me! I have fallen in love with...Charlie.

I am a Child of the Forest and the Woods...a friend of fawns and fairies. Tolkien and Lewis...Yes, I can wear the dress and the heels and be charming but this is really who I am at heart, just a barefoot girl grounding out on dewy grass at dawn. I admit, I had to throw stones down the steep and rocky ravine to try to create a rockslide...so a little Elvish and Impishly Mischievious too.

We ran into about 10-15 people which makes me think mid-week will work best for me. I'm used to running into bears, deer, and elk- not people and need silence vs. the laughter of hiking groups. Interesting what Nature means to different people and at different times as I've been a part of those hiking groups in the past. For now, I need filling and profound serenity which is Pinnacle Saddle in a nutshell.

At the end, because of using downhill muscle I'm quite unaccustomed to using (very steep descent on slippery rocks) I lay on the wall of Reflection Lake. I am done...tapped out..wasted....

https://picasaweb.google.com/katacarroll/PinnacleSaddle92013

Favorite Places in the World: Paradise at Mt. Rainier in Late Summer by Kat Carroll, NTP, Associate Editor, Health Freedom News

https://picasaweb.google.com/katacarroll/MtRainier9213

We were admittedly multi-tasking needing to get some shopping done and but also needing the enjoyment of a late summer’s day at Paradise on Mt. Rainier too. So many of our guests had already gone...Finally, our turn!!
 Whittaker’s Mountaineering http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/ has become a “must stop” when passing through Ashford at the entrance to Mt. Rainier for wool tops to wear as layers over a wicking T-shirt (my new favorites: http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/smartwool/nts-mid-250-zip-t-womens and http://www.whittakermountaineering.com/brands/mountain-hardwear/wicked-lite-ls-t-womens)on the mountain and great children’s gifts are there too.

 If you’re into climbing, the guides will get you there. The energy and excitement is palpable where climbers either return from summiting Mt. Rainier or prepare to depart. Kids are all over the climbing rock wall. Picnic tables in the sunshine fuel mountaineers with burgers, pizza, and beer.

There is much to see and do along the way: Cougar Rock Campground, Longmire where we walked in the Fall years ago and saw more mushroom varieties than we knew existed, the exalted Christine Falls, Comet Falls with a great trail and rushing water like a falling star at the end, and the "crowning jewel" of Narada Falls where we have fed Clark’s Nutcrackers by hand and stood in the mist of thunderous water crashing into the valley below. So much of Nature makes me feel very small....

Once into the National Park after a series of hairpin curves and long after cell reception deemed us “unplugged” we were fortunate to find one of the two remaining parking spaces at 3 p.m. at Paradise. Otherwise a shuttle is provided.
An acrid note hung in the air mixed with late afternoon, sun-drenched sweetness from wildflower stragglers like asters, pearly everlasting, lupine, and some which bloom late and are worth coming to see specifically.


As we began to walk up the mountain on paved trails, every language and accent met our ears and children raced along with their families. For those who had walked enough for their little legs and were cranky, we shared the sighting of a deer with two fawns to distract them. In the past, we’ve seen a fox family every year as we drove to the mountain.

While Europe has its castles and great gardens, America has National Parks and Lodges. Paradise Lodge, at 5400 ft., was built in 1916 from a stand of burned Alaska Cedar that had stood as ghost trees for 30 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Inn_(Washington). It was based on the great Lodges of the Catskills and Adirondacks. Most of the architects worked around the US so there was little variation on the Rustic National Park Lodge theme.

The park ranger told a story in the Lodge that really fascinated me. Some of us (okay, I admit it, I identified completely….) need continual challenges and must always be building and creating. Stephen Mather’s boredom and restlessness paid off as a gift to the World: “Stephen Mather was the first director of the National Park Service. He used his wealth and political connections to take the national park idea in important new directions.

Born in California to a family with deep, patrician roots in New England, Mather graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, worked as a reporter for the New York Sun, and then served as sales manager for the Pacific Coast Borax Company, where he demonstrated his special genius for promotion.

He branded the product as 20 Mule Team Borax and inventively created so much publicity that sales skyrocketed. Mather then helped start a competing borax company and soon became rich beyond belief. But by 1914, at age 47, the self-made millionaire was restless for a new challenge.

Mather counted as one of the highlights of his life meeting the legendary John Muir on a hike in Sequoia National Park in 1912. When he visited Sequoia and Yosemite in the summer of 1914, Mather was disgusted by the poor condition of the parks. He wrote a letter of complaint to his college friend, Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, who invited Mather to come to Washington and do something about it himself. Mather accepted the challenge. As assistant to Lane in charge of the parks, he began a crusade to mold a haphazard collection of national parks into a cohesive system and to create a federal agency solely devoted to them: the National Park Service….

Upon Mather's death, the Park Service erected bronze plaques in every park with the words: "There will never come an end to the good that he has done." http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/people/nps/mather/  While his work might seem too governmentally regulated to some, the upgraded experience to the National Parks which marked Mather's contribution provided my childhood with rich memories of existing inside of wild, rugged nature in Yosemite and Sequoia where trees  thousands of years old  put life into perspective in their noble way. In my 20’s when life expanded to my own family and children, the National Parks were always a place to “get my peace back” and we passed this legacy to our own children as many we walked with up the Mountain were giving to theirs. It made me happy to see it.

Adjacent to Mt. Rainier is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. “The Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the oldest National Forests in the United States. Included as part of the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve in 1897, this area was set aside as the Columbia National Forest in 1908. It was renamed the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 1949….Gifford Pinchot, an active conservationist, was appointed first Chief of the Forest Service. He played a key role in developing the early principles of environmental awareness. Pinchot's philosophy is made clear in his farsighted statement that the forests should be managed for "..the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run."  http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/giffordpinchot/about-forest

The Park Ranger went on to tell us how much damage the forest and meadows had suffered in years past while these early managers determined how best to handle increasing amounts of people visiting the area. The terrain is as fragile as arctic tundra. In one meadow which used to be a golf course, it took 80 years to recover its original condition once the golf course was abandoned. Campers used to light ancient trees on fire just to watch them burn all night…

Evidently there are few places in the World one can drive right to the alpine area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_line where the trees are sparse due to extreme conditions  without hiking in. The endurance of the Alpines are particularly precious to me. Their usual spire-shapes accommodate to contortion under the weight of heavy snow. They are tough and persevering and remind us how strong we are too if need be. Surrounded by fragile and delicate flowers which live under snow and ice much of the year, the Alpine meadows are profound in their simplicity, power, and beauty.

In the distance, glacier water rushes down the mountain dropping rapidly forming the Nisqually River at 3820 ft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisqually_River  The fresh, mineralized water is distinct in its milky appearance. It flows across several county lines 81 miles and is the territorial center of the Nisqually Tribe who share its name.

Despite picking a lot of huckleberries (the ones on the lower branches are the sweetest) we are hungry after the stimulation of high-mountain air and so we stop at Alexander’s Country Inn passing through their gift shop to sit by the trout pond. We enjoy the absorbing activity of fish jumping, insects visible in the lowering sunlight in gyrating swarms over the greenish water overhung by weeping willow trees. Swallows fly low, scooping them up and dragonflies lazily make their way around the edges- one landing on my leg as I ate!  (Yes, I 'emoted' quite loudly despite the other diners there who quickly empathized...)

Alexander’s has resident deer and one mama enjoyed apples knocked off the tree by the chef with a very long stick taped one to the other, sharing them with her two fawns. He said she had been a fawn just last year and now she is three.  We have eaten many times at Alexander’s and the food is consistently good but a little expensive. We even enjoyed blackberry pie and ice cream, celebrating the end of summer- an unusual treat for us. Eclectic food made by the Sherpa’s wives is at Wild Berry- Yak Burger is on the menu and a good selection for vegetarians. Copper Creek is always busy as we near the exit to the National Park.

Near Morton where our Optometry Clinic is, the phone service returns and we hear the buzz of voice mail notification. There’s something about stopping- unplugging- and returning to how it used to be before wireless became an obsession and an addiction (again, okay- I admit it (: )  Returning to the ways of childhood, immersing in nature, losing ourselves in the moment, breathing deeply of pure mountain air and really smelling each layer of scent, feasting our eyes on magnificent beauty, pristine water, and climbing mountains both evocative of  Middle Earth terrain where Dragons and Sorcerers might live and  yet terrifying in their implication (Mt. Rainier is a volcano…) brings wholeness and balance to life in 2013. I’ll never stop needing to be near the innate commanding majesty of mountains to “get my peace back”. Mt. Rainier and the Tatoosh Range http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatoosh_Range  are so phenomenal and I hope you see them if you never have. They change us like all travel does. Make the trek. You won't ever regret it...

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