MOUNTAIN TIME

No hiking today. We pack up camp after breakfast. We walk to the river to retire our walking sticks gathered two days prior. We ceremoniously throw them into the rapids from the footbridge.

The plan is to drive from White River to Ohanapecosh, to see what that campground has to offer, and to return home. The plan changes when we encounter road construction near Panther Creek. We decide, after twenty-five minutes of combined waiting at three separate sites of construction within two miles, to travel home by going around The Mountain. The map shows that it is the same distance and then we don't have to encounter the same road construction. Our day turns into an auto tour of The Mountain. We make brief stops at Ohanapecosh, Paradise, Longmire. We stop at Cougar Rock for lunch. The child vomits her lunch all over herself as we pass through the Nisqually Entrance gate, so we stop to change her clothes. We pull over in Elbe so that the child can see some of the locomotives near the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad depot. She is currently facinated by the book Freight Train by Donald Crews. We read it every night before she goes to bed. Now she gets to see the real thing.

We were glad to be able to camp and hike and enjoy the company of one another. Now, we are glad to be home and take hot showers and sleep in our own beds.