We drove back to Mt. Rainier and up to Sunrise Visitor Center where we would begin our hike to the Mt. Fremont Lookout. The trail starts up a paved, steep section that is part of several other trails. There were quite a few people here. We passed many of them and it became less crowded as we got onto the next part of the trail.
We passed Frozen Lake, which has an amazing huge blue hunk of ice floating in it. It looks like a little glacier and it's awesome. After passing a field of beautiful wild flowers, the trail continues from here up a gravel path with big rocks and a steep drop.
The views of Mount Rainer from this part of the trail are amazing. It seems so close and so big. As the path narrows and we have to cross over a long section of bigger rocks, people are stopped and looking at mountain goats far down below. I never actually saw them, but Joanna insists they were there.
When we got near the end of the trail I could see clouds resting below the peaks in the distance. I've always wanted to hike above the clouds and see just the tips of mountains peaking out above them. This is the closest I've gotten so far, but I'll take it. For now.
The fire tower lookout at the end allows you a slightly better views of the full area. There are mountains stretching off in every direction and a chilly breeze blowing in. I liked the reflection in the fire tower windows.
We stayed up there for a while, taking in the amazing views of this massive mountain. Somehow this vantage point just made it seem unreal that we were standing next to something so big. I loved it. We took a different path for the hike down, requiring us to do some more snow sliding and possibly trail blazing. We had to take a dirt road back to the parking lot, but we made it.
After leaving the park we headed back toward Portland, stopping there again to go to Laughing Planet Cafe and Little Big Burger for food. We found a Trader Joe's to resupply on some foodstuffs then continued on to Eugene, where Saturday night was in full swing. We went to the Rogue Public House for a flight. They serve beers by Rogue and Eugene City Brewing, which is a small operation parented by Rogue. Their Libertine Imperial IPA is really good as is the Electric Peach by Rogue that I tried. There was a regular customer that was talking my ear off about local breweries and how things used to be as I sampled.
We walked down the road to Falling Sky Brewing, which looked good online and my bartender at Rogue said it was a good place to check out. I really like this place a lot, and they had an awesome selection. First of all, everyone was really nice there in helping me pick out my flight. Second, I love their presentation and their packaging. Their flight is served in this cloud and they give out free stickers. Can't go wrong with that.
I liked the Upside Brown Ale and the Kama Sumatra Coffee Porter, but the Standout was definitely the Don't Panic American Pale Ale. It was fantastically balanced and tasty. I wasn't ready to stop drinking just yet after the flight so I got another beer. I was just in a good mood and having a good time so I got another drink. Joanna and I were having a serious conversation about politics or the world or something else, which hasn't happened in a while so it was nice to discuss things over a beer even if I was the only one holding one. She still smelled them. We basically stayed there until they closed and then got back on the highway until we got to a rest stop on the I-5 with a nice grove of trees where we could set up our tent for the night out of sight.
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