Ptarmigans and Falcons and Marmots...and Mice
Slept in a bit. It was quite a dark campsite last night. The morning was almost clear and quite sunny. After breakfast we left Cougar Rock Campground and wound our way up to Paradise, where the park's primary visitor center is as well as the Paradise Inn, a historic hotel, and a plethora of hiking trails up the mountain.
It is one of the earliest recreation areas in the park. They even had a ski lifts here after WWII. The Park Service has changed since then and the area is much more protected. It is such a popular area that the parking lots fill before 10am during the summer and they post the parking lot status at the park entrance stations. We were there about 9:30 on a Wednesday in the fall...plenty of room in the parking lot.
Since the visitor center didn't open until 10am, we wandered up to the Paradise Inn. It is a wonderful old timber frame building with a soaring open lobby with plenty of seating and fireplaces at both ends. We briefly entertained checking in, but settled for coffee in their coffee shop. The inn is undergoing a major renovation of its annex and the entire inn will close in October and the renovations are scheduled to be completed in 2019.
We had come to Paradise to hike. After a stop at the visitor center, we started up the Skyline Trail, a long loop trail that goes up to about 6800 feet. We got to the trail at about the same time as a school group of fifth-graders who on a ranger-led hike. They were ahead of us on the trail and it didn't look promising for a quiet hike, but they stopped after about 200 yards for a "hydration break" and ranger talk. We kept on going and never saw them again. Since we are fairly slow hikers, especially when we are starting at over a mile high and coming directly from sea level, I assume that they took one of the trails that split from the Skyline trail. it
Shortly after the school group, we passed a young man packing a large propane tank, at least a 10 gallon tank, much larger than the standard tank used for grills and such. He was a mountain guides bringing the tank up to Camp Muir, a climbing hut which is nearly five miles up the trail and at 10,000 feet. He was slowly trudging along using two poles for additional support, even on the low flatter trail. He said he would be spelled by another guide part way up. Sure enough, we saw them later with a different guide packing the tank.
The trail was paved for about the first half mile (and also the last half mile coming down the other side) before turning into gravel. While it had stands of spruce and fir on the lower part, most of the trail was through alpine meadows or just rock. The mountain was very visible directly in front of us the entire way up.
Our hiking was punctuated by stops looking for birds. Ellen's target bird for today was the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch. It lives along the edge of snowfields and in the nrocks. We looked hard and saw a few flybys of small unidentifiable birds, but no confirmable Rosy Finches. On our hike up, not all was lost, as we saw a large falcon, which turned out to be a Prairie Falcon (we had an even better view on the way down). It is a life bird for Ellen.
We were also stopping for marmots. There were many hanging about near the trail. They don't seem to have much fear of humans, since they would not pay any attention as one walked by. One even came ambling down the side of the trail and barely picked up his pace as he passed us.
The midpoint of the trail is Panorama Point at about 6,500 feet. It is a panoramic view with Mount Rainier looming above to the north and a range of scraggy peaks to the south. Beyond them Mount Saint Helens (what's left of it), Mount Hood, and Mount Adams, all large volcanoes, were clearly visible.
Panorama Point is clearly a turnaround point for many hikers, as the trail became much rougher as it went further up the mountain to top out at about 6,800 feet. We considered which way to go and decided to continue on. We were rewarded with a second life bird at just about the top of the trail, a pair of White-tailed Ptarmigan hanging out at the edge of a small snowfield right next to the trail. They just sat about twenty feet from the trail as we and other birders took photos.
It was all downhill from there. The upper part of the trail was much rougher on this compared to the hike up. We continued to search the snowfields for finches. We had a second look at the Prairie Falcon as it dived on a flock of Ravens and we saw a Golden Eagle soar over on its way south. What we didn't see was the peak of My. Rainier. The clouds had moved in from the west as were hiking down.
We also passed by a perfect little stream burbling through a green alpine meadow with late wildflowers surrounded by a bare rocky mountainside.
By the time we arrived back at the visitor center, the mountain had completely vanished. We timed that hike quite well. What we didn't time so well was how long it would take. We expected to be back in time for lunch, but missed by about three hours. The Camp Paradise Deli inside the visitor center was still in full swing so a couple of bowls of chili and a salad made for a very late lunch.
After a short visit to the visitor center exhibits, we returned to Speedy and drove the winding road down from Paradise and turned east and drove an equally winding road to the east edge of the park and the Ohanapecosh Campground. We found a nicely open site among the trees and settled in for the evening...until the mouse, uh mice.
As Ellen was reading and I was writing this entry in the Speedy Journal, we kept hearing a tapping sound. At first I thought that we might have gotten squirrels under the hood again, but could find nothing. I went back to writing. As I got to the "perfect little stream", I caught movement out of the corner of my vision. It was a mouse heading for the back of the wastebasket. As I went to look behind the basket, Ellen yelped. It had popped out from behind the cabinets and landed on the bed. It quickly disappeared, but we didn't know where, but we couldn't find it in the bed.
Time to get out the traps. After our last mouse, we bought a couple of traps similar to the one I borrowed from Harry. They are plastic, black and look like an alligator jaw with a big yellow tongue. I set one behind the third seat and another behind the sink. About two minutes later, the first one went off. It had a mouse. I took it outside and tossed the carcass into the woods, problem solved...we thought.
I went back to writing and there was the movement again. It was a mouse right by the wastebasket again. The first mouse must have been Ellen's mouse. Mine was still around. I've moved a trap by the wastebasket and now we wait. I hope it likes peanut butter.
I guess it does. Within a minute of writing that last sentence, a trap went off. It had another mouse. I hope it is the last, but we've left the traps set. More news tomorrow.
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