Day 79 (July 24, 2010)– Amazing Shift Switching

So apparently, my manager didn’t get my time off request form, so he didn’t give me the days off I needed to go backpacking. Which really sucked, but I was able though about 6 different switches get the days off anyways. Which means the trip is on and I will get to hike the north section of Wonderland.

Day 77 and 28 (July 22 and 23, 2010)– Work

Nothing new going on just work and hopeing I get the days off I need next week to go backpacking.

Day 76 (July 21, 2010)– Comet Falls

I had the afternoon off today, so I decided to hike to Comet Falls. Comet Fall is suppose to be the best waterfall in the entire park. I went hiking with two of my friends, Kelly and Steven.

We drove down to Comet Falls trailhead and started up the trail. About 0.3 miles up the trail we cross over Christine Falls. Christine Falls is a little waterfall that can be seen from the road so lots of tourists stop there.

From there we headed uphill for 1.3 mile to the falls. The falls just appeared out of the woods, and were amazing.

From Comet, we hiked up closer to the base and then up to the top of the falls. Where we say two Mountain Goats on the next ridge.

Day 75 (July 20, 2010)– John’s Last Day on the Mountain

Today was John’s last day. It was sad to see him go, and was a fresh reminder that I would be leaving the mountain in a couple of week. It is hard to believe that the summer is almost over and I will be saying goodbye to many of my new friends.

Day 74 (July 19, 2010)– The Great Ovi Arrives

Basically since I have arrived, I have heard all about Ovi. Ovi is from Romania and has worked at Mount Rainier for 3 years (I think). I was working with him for about a two hours and I totally understand why everyone kept going on about him.

Day 73 (July 18, 2010)– John’s Last Day of Work

A couple a weeks ago, I did a post about hiking with one of the Singaporean’s Jonathan. Well today is his last day on the mountain. It is a sad day for me. He is my favorite dishwasher and always made going back into the kitchen interesting. But alas, John is going to take a quick tour of the U.S. and then head back to Singapore for school.

Day 72 (July 17, 2010)– Three-quarters of the way to Camp Muir

Since I had today off as well, I know it seems like I never work but I actually do on occasion. I usually work my hiking in around work schedule. Basically if I have free time, I am probably hiking.

So the goal for today was to hike to Camp Muir. Camp Muir is named after the naturalist John Muir. John Muir founded the Sierra Club and was a conservation supporter. John Muir visited Mount Rainer and my favorite story about him comes from this visit. His plan had been to just hike up a part way up the mountain, but in a letter to his wife he tells his wife pushing upwards and the next thing he know he is standing on the summit.

Camp Muir is a camp where climbers typically spend the night at before summiting the mountain. Camp Muir is about a 4.1 mile hike from Paradise. 4.1 miles seems like an easy enough hike, but it’s not. It is a grueling 4.1 mile hike with about 4,900 feet of elevation gain. Plus add in the sun beating up and down on you. Up on you, what am I talking about? SNOW! On the mountain you risk sunburn not just from the sun but its reflection off the snow so it is easy to burn your chin, underside of your arms, inside your shorts.

I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a grueling hike, but my hiking partner didn’t quite understand all this. It took us longer than I expected to make it to Panoramic Point, which is only 1.7 miles from the trailhead. The view was fantastic. It was a clear day so we could see(from right to left) Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams. Mt. Hood is in the  middle-left and is very hard to see in the picture but it is there.

From Panoramic, we continued up the mountain. After about another hour of climbing we made Pebble Creek with is about half way there. We took a short break and then started working our way up the Muir Snowfield.

About half way up the snow field my hiking partner sits down and state “I refuse to go any further.” Needless to say I was disappointed but not surprised. She wasn’t in shape for climbing to Muir and was getting pretty sun burnt. So we turned around and headed back to Paradise.

As we were heading down, I decided that despite wearing shorts, I wanted to glissade down part of the snowfield. For those who don’t know glissading is a fancy name for sliding down on your but.

Day 71 (July 16, 2010)– Dungeness Crab for Dinner

I had today off, so I went into Puyallup with a couple of my friends for the day. I couple of weeks ago, while at Pike’s Place, I decided that I wanted a Dungeness Crab.

I walk into the grocery store to pick up my crab and the women behind the counter weights the crab and tells me it is kind of expensive as I start an internal debate. She thinks my debate is over whether to get it. My response is “it’s not a debate over whether to get one; it’s whether to get TWO.” I decided that since I was on the west coast and seldom ever get the chance to have Dungeness crab that I would splurge on two. So I had a great feast instead of the EDR mystery meat.

Day 70 (July 15, 2010)– Round Pass Finally And Lake George

You know the saying Third time’s the charm, well for me and Round Pass, the third time was the charm in making it there. The hike was fairly easy only 3.8 miles mostly uphill but a gentle uphill. It was a great feeling making it up to Round Pass finally. The main reason I wanted to make it to Round Pass so bad was to see the Marine Monument.

The Monument is to the 32 Marines that were killed in airplane crash on the mountain on December 10, 1946. The Marines are still entombed in the Tahoma Glacier located on the slopes of Mount Rainier.

After seeing the monument, I decided to hike the extra mile to Lake George. It was a steep climb, though the forest. Though on the way, I spotted this cool flower called Bear Grass.

Once on top of the ridge, I was climbing, Lake George just appeared out of the trees.

Day 69 (July 14, 2010)– Snow Lake, and a Scary Realization

Between work Breakfast shift and Dinner shift, I went hiking with one of the guys to Snow and Bench Lake. This was a short but good hike. So we drove out to the trailhead and started up this 1.6 mile trail. It was a fairly easy hike. It was uphill but not very steep. We passed though valleys of Avalanche Lilies (I will explain why they are called this in my next post, but they are a really cool flower). We passed by Bench Lake

After Bench Lake, we started to hit some snow but it was no big deal. After the snow, we made it to Snow Lake and it was amazing. We followed the trail to the point where they no longer maintain trail. Abe, the guy I was hiking with, asked me if I wanted to go around snow lake and me being me said sure. So we bushwhacked our way around the lake. About half-way around, it started to get really sketchy. At this point, I realized that if anything was to happen to me or Abe, I would NEVER be able to find another hiking partner on Mount Rainier.

Thankfully despite, a few close calls and falling though the snow once for Abe, and twice for me, we made it around Snow Lake and back to the trail.

Day 68 (July 13, 2010)– Work

Nothing new to report other than work. Though, the resident Paradise foxes now have names: Choclate Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and Vanilla Cake. One of the cooks was hungry for cake and the foxes wondered by. So she named them after cake.

Day 67 (July 12, 2010)– Ross’s Last Day

Today is a very sad day, it is Ross’s last day on the mountain. He is heading home to get the surgery on his ankle. He seems to have accepted the fact that he is leaving, but it is still a hard pill to swallow for most of us that one accident can ruin the entire rest of our summer.

Day 65 and 66 (July 10 and 11, 2010)– Work and Alumni Network

The past two days have been nothing interesting other than work, though I do love the UF alumni network they are everywhere. It seems like; I meet a fellow Gator, or see another Gator Shirt every other day at least. It is a great feeling to know how large the alumni family is and that no matter where I go there will always be fellow Gators.

Day 59 (July 4, 2010)– Happy 4th of July and NO Fireworks

Well this is the first 4th of July that I haven’t been home for that I truly missed not being home. I missed going shopping for fireworks at Bimbo’s on July 3rd with my dad. I missed shooting firecrackers and the cannon’s off with my dad in the morning. Yes, my dad does have a cannon. It is not a full size one just a mini one, but my dad made it himself. And it’s fun to shoot off.
Another bad thing about this 4th of July is that the weather is awful up here. It is cold and cloudy.

Day 58 (July 3, 2010)– Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday Dad! I am not sure how old he is but he is somewhere between 50 and 60. Basically he is older than dirt, but I love him anyways. I did actually have time to call and talk to him.

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday Dear Daddy

Happy Birthday to You.

Day 56 and 57 (July 1 and 2, 2010)– Work and Cold Weather

Coming back from Olympic to Mount Rainier was a big shock. The temperature had dropped about 20 degree and whiteouts were occurring again. In case you can’t figure out what a whiteout is it is when a fog bank rolls in and you are luck If you can see 5 feet in front of you. So basically the only thing to do was work and hang out in the lodge.

Day 53 (June 28, 2010)– Server Leaving and MAST Class

Ok, so this morning my plans were completely turned upside down. One of the servers quit this morning. This means that we no longer have to many bussers, so I don’t need to take the MAST class. I am not sure how one server quitting means we no longer have too many bussers, but apparently it does. My plan to go to Olympic hasn’t changed; I just no longer need to rush out after work and drive.

Well later in the day, Wes (my boss’s boss) wants to serve whenever possible so he told me to take the class. So my original plan was back on. I left work and drove to the class and made it with about 3 mins. to spare.

In the course of the 3 hour MAST class, I can summarize it in the following three points.

1. Do not serve visibly drunk people.
2. Check I.D.s (Do not serve minors)
3. People are not responsible for their actions while drinking.

After the class I drove to Olympic National Park, where I was planning on camping in the Heart O'the Hills.  But I got there are midnight so I just slept in my car.

Day 52 (June 27, 2010)– Job Offer

Due to the increased number of bussers, Kyle our manager is going to be forced to cut the number of hours we each get a week. However, the other hotel on the mountain is in desperate need of servers. So Kyle came to me with a job offer. I could stay working at Paradise and have my hours cut or I could go work at Longmire and have a serving position. This is a great oppurtiuty, but there is a catch. I need a MAST (Mandatory Alcohol Server Training) card. That is not a big deal it’s a three hour class. The problem lies in the fact that I am going to Olympic National Park on Tuesday and Wednesday, and closest class to the mountain is on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. which kills the going to Olympic plan. So I asked for some time to think and decided to see if there were any other classes offered on Monday and were on my way to Olympic. I was in luck and there was so I am planning on taking the job at Longmire.

Day 50, and 51 (June 25 and 26, 2010)– Work and Soccer

The last two days have been work and soccer. I really haven’t done anything else, at this point I am torn between hiking, and watching soccer. I know it would seem logical to most people to not watch the world cup and go hiking but it the WORLD CUP and only happens every four years. In addition, there is the fact that I have hiked everything that is snow free in the park.

Day 49 (June 24, 2010)– The Dumbest Question I have been asked by a Tourist

Yesterday, on my hike I took a fully packed backpack so I could practice for my Wonderland Hikes. I was feeling lazy when I got back yesterday, so I waited until after work today to bring my pack up. I was bringing my pack up when a tourist stopped and asked me if I had just gotten back from climbing the mountain. This might not seem like a dumb question seeing as I was carrying a pack, but it was due to the clothing I was wearing. Drum roll please, I was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, a pair of shorts and flip-flops. I really wanted to say “yes I climb the mountain in shorts and flip-flops” but alas I did not. Though I really wanted to.