Today we hiked up Pebble Creek trail. This hike is on Mt. Rainier! This is the first time Gavin and I have set foot on the mountain since we decided to embark on this adventure. Last night after I got off of work, we packed up our stuff and headed toward Ashford, WA. Richard, Gavin and I stayed at Whittaker’s Bunkhouse; we thought it might be easier to do the 2 hour drive to Ashford the night before so that we didn’t have to leave the house at 5 am. The Bunkhouse is owned by Lou Whittaker, its a cute little lodge. This morning, we woke up with what we thought was enough time, ran down and grabbed some breakfast then headed over to Whittaker Mountaineering. For this hike we needed actual plastic mountaineering boots so we rented them. We went over there and it took me 4 different boots and 20 minutes later to find the right ones and even then I wasn’t sure if they were fitting right. Apparently they are suppose to fit a bit big and feel loose around the ankle. To me they felt like clown shoes and I was really worried that I wouldn’t make it up the mountain in them. Finally we got on the rode and about 6 miles into the park we hit snow! The higher we got the deeper the snow and thicker the clouds! At Paradise we couldn’t even see the top of the mountain we were standing on. We threw extra clothes on and joined the group. The beginning of the hike started out kind of awkward with those darn boots on. 
Shortly into the hike we took a quick clothing break. I definitely needed to remove some layers. It may be snowing and the wind really blowing but I’m still hauling a 31 pound pack up a mountain. At this point Richard was realizing that his pack was a bit too heavy so he poured out a gallon of water we was carrying. Once everyone was situated and ready to go we started to trek our way up to Pebble Creek. The trail was pretty much nonexistent, I have no idea how the guys knew where we were going it was a complete white out. 
Half way into the hike we stopped to take a quick snack/water break. Richard was still feeling like his pack was too heavy for him so Gavin (being the great son that he his) took one of the gallons of water from him. At the end of our break they did a quick mountaineering lesson. They taught us how to rest step and pressure breathe. Two tools that will help us use less energy when we’ll be close to the top when the air is thin. They wanted us to practice these things up the next leg of the trip. The next part was straight up hill, they claim its the steepest part of the whole mountain. At first my “rest steps” weren’t restful but painful. 
Come to find out I was doing them totally wrong, once I got it figured out it really does help. Going up the steep hill made the mountaineering boots feel great! They really help with kicking in those steps! At one point we’re going up “avalanche shoot” and we got stopped because the people at the front of the line were slipping and sliding. I was so busy watching them that I hadn’t looked at my surroundings. I turned around and it looked as though its pretty straight down, I would definitely slide for a long ways before I could stop. I couldn’t see more than a couple hundred feet so who knows really how far down it was….its okay it didn’t scare me. I just kept my eye on the next step ahead of me and I made it up avalanche shoot like a pro! Once we reached our destination, you couldn’t really tell where we were. Definitely no creek around, it was buried under about 6 feet of snow. Still couldn’t see the top of Mt. Rainier and apparently she would have been right in front of our faces. We layered back up because the wind and snow were blowing and ate some lunch. 
Then we headed back down. This was the fun part, however, a bit crazy. We didn’t have to follow the trail, we just when down! I did lots of slipping and fell a minimum of 4 times! :) It was fun, It would have been great to be able to take my snowboard down it! I felt like a turtle though! They told us, “nose over toes,” you’re suppose to lean way over so that you don’t have too much weight on your back side and slip and fall. I works but the snow is loose from all the fresh stuff they got over the last week. We all made it down with no injuries! The sun tried to come out but never made it. I could totally have kept going it felt great to be getting real mountaineer training! I loved being out on the mountain. After the hike a group of us all met at the Copper Creek Inn for some lunch and blackberry pie. It was delicious. Then it was back to Whittaker Mountaineering to return the boots and a 3 hour drive home. Once home we weight Gavin’s pack to see how much it weighed after taking the gallon water jug from his dad…it weighed 40 pounds! Go Gavin! :) The biggest lesson learned to today was to wear sunscreen on the mountain even if its not sunny….Gavin has a lobster face to prove it! 
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