Mount RAINier

Day 14. Monday, May 4.


View Harvey's Route in a larger map

We started the day with a little walk around our no-longer-creepy-in-the-daylight campground. Pops had found a trail while Casey and I took showers in the always creepy shower and laundry facility. The walk was nice and we saw a few black tail deer; the dogs had a great time, the lampshade barely slowing Niko down.





We left the campground shortly after to head back to the national park. We stopped before Longmire at the Kautz Creek trailhead hoping to find a trail without too much snow. We got some good looks at the creek, which was victim of the many mudflows that plague Mt. Rainier.




We turned around after a mile or so to make our way to the village of Paradise, about an 11 mile drive and a 3000 foot ascent up the mountain from Longmire. On our way along the slow and twisting roads it started to rain. And then it started to snow. Harvey was performing like a champ, but the roads were starting to get bad so we decided to turn around. I'm sure we had gone about 10.5 of the 11 miles, but visibility was awful so actually making it to Paradise wouldn't have meant much. In stead we went back to Longmire and had lunch at the National Parks Inn to warm up.

From there, we drove back out of the park and toward Seattle. It rained basically the whole way, and along the drive I noticed some ting interesting about Harvey... his headlights weren't working. High beams either. We got to the RV park before dark and called AAA. The dude came out and examined Harv, he said it was a fuse but we could find one. Since we were in Seattle for two night we decided to have dinner and work the problem in the morning. Casey made a great pasta dinner and we drank a bottle of wine from Napa.

Will Harvey ever get fixed? Will Eric and Casey have to drive during the day for the rest of the trip? Tune in next time for the exciting conclusion...