Mt. Rainier Hike 8-13-10 Day 2

After waking up stiff and sore from the day before I cooked up some eggs and bacon with OJ for myself and Raspberry Tea for Kristin. Today's hike would be a little less strenuous. We planned to hike up the Glacier Basin Trail directly out of the White River CG to Burroughs Mtn trail via a connector trail, back toward Sunrise Lodge past Shadow on the Wonderland trail and then down to White River CG. The elevation gain from the CG to the Burroughs Mtn trail  is approximately 3000 ft. in 4-5 miles, but most of the elev. gain is made in the last 2.5 miles.

About one mile in:

A lake hidden by the trees, but later seen from above.

We were passed by a group of WTA volunteers (Washington Trail Association) who were headed up to reroute a section of the Glacier Basin trail that had washed out. We talked to them at the junction of the trail reroute, we were able to use the original trail still as the new one was still in progress.

From the Washout:

Taken from atop a slide area:

It's hard to tell in this next picture but there is a zig-zag route up the side of the valley that I believe is the climbers route up the Emmons Glacier. The Glacier Basin trail is a popular entry for Climbers looking for the top!

Here is Kristin looking back at the mountain:

Looking down towards the CG:

Transitioning from the forest trees to alpine rocks:

Near the Junction atop Burroughs Mtn, still not on top of Burroughs though.

The trail ahead:

Looking towards the 3rd Burroughs, this overlooks the Winthrop Glacier and Mystic Lake:

The lake(pond) hidden by trees on the Glacier Basin trail:

Emmons Glacier

Sunrise Lodge in the distance:

Burroughs Mtn Sign near Shadow lake:

Shadow Lake:

On the ridge behind the lake is the trail we hiked on the previous day.

About this time we hit the junction to follow the Wonderland Trail down to White River CG. We also ran into the two boys from the previous day. They had stopped in at Sunrise and were on there way to the CG as well for their next stop. They said the hike out of the valley was tough, but they were still hiking faster than us down the trail!

Our trail guide for about 100 yards:

After another long day of hiking and enjoying the sun, we were tired and relieved to make it back into camp, we again passed the two boys who were now setting up camp, we exchanged waves and headed onto our camp.