I had planned a weekend trip with my friend Steve Wirth and his cousin to see the Alpenglow on Mount Rainier. After talking with some locals, I had picked Gobbler's Knob as a good place to see it from.
Unfortunately, the road to the trailhead we wanted was washed out, but I figured we could just take the Lake Christine trailhead and find our way in from there.
We missed the fork in the trail to take us toward Gobbler's Knob. As it was getting later in the day and I didn't want miss the sunset, we decided to head to Mount Beljica instead.
By the time we made it up to the summit, it was shrouded in fog and we could not see Rainier.
Disappointed, we drank the six-pack we had hauled up with us and, taking the empties with us, headed back down the hill to find a place to set up camp.
As we were headed down, I noticed the fog seemed to be lifting. I suggested we head back up. Steve would have no part of it, but his cousin and I went back up. Almost to the summit, my strength gave out and I yelled to Steve's cousin I was heading back down. He was a little ahead of me, just around a bend in the trail, where I could not see him. He shouted back for me to keep coming, I couldn't miss this. Reluctantly, I turned around again and joined him.
The view was magnificent! It was better than I had hoped!
Mount Rainier was a bright pink and seemed to float on the bright pink clouds just below us.
I snapped a shot of the back of him gazing at Rainier, got another shot of the mountain by itself, and realized I was out of film! My other rolls were in my backpack at the bottom of the scramble.
I will always treasure that moment and the two shots I got. When I find them I will post them here.