Northern Loop Trail Day 5, Granite Creek Camp to Ipsut Creek Camp, September 6th, 2002



The night turned out to be a very good test for my relatively new 20F rated sleeping bag, with the temperature at 25F when I got up about 7:30 to clear skies. I had been plenty warm in the sleeping bag, albeit with a few more clothes than I normally wear. Surprisingly, my water bottles hadn't frozen, but the trail certainly had, about 2-3 inches down! I made haste to put together a quick breakfast of hot chocolate and instant potatos au grautin, saving my instant oatmeal for lunch. I managed to get out of camp by 8:30, and was quite happy to get on the move to try and get a little warmed up! As the night before, I had all my clothes on, which was initially an advantage, as it made my pack significantly lighter. The forest between Granite Creek Camp and the Winthrop Glacier was quite distinctive, with most tree trunks covered in sage colored moss. Soon enough I was at the glacier, which impressed not only by it's size, but it's ugly layer of rock and dirt. It was here that I saw my first hikers, heading the other way, near Garda Falls, over which Granite Creek makes it's way to Winthrop Creek. That creek was quite a raging torrent, necessitating another log bridge cross at the lowest point on the trail east of Moraine Park.



The trail headed steeply up to the debris field presumably left by the Winthrop Glacier, where a different view of Garda Falls came to light, and much improved views of Rainier. Out in the sun, it was already a balmy 50 degrees F, only an hour and a half after leaving camp. I put my extra clothes in the pack, as it was all uphill for the next four or so miles, and was comfortable in my shorts and t-shirt again. I had another river crossing to make, this of the West Fork White River, much smaller at this point than Winthrop Creek. I saw several more hikers before reaching Mystic Lake camp, roughly an hour after leaving the debris field.



I headed off on the trail to the Mystic Lake ranger station, which split suddenly with no signs indicating the proper direction. At this point, I saw a family of deer grazing, who didn't mind me being only about 10 feet away taking pictures. I went by them in search of the cabin, but never found it. I later discovered that I indeed had gone the correct way, but just did not go far enough. I found a nice grassy spot on the shore of the lake and set up my stove to make my hot oatmeal, as well as put some moleskin on my feet for the huge elevation loss I would experience on the way back to Ipsut Creek. Next to my lunch spot was an unbelievably large colony of tadpoles, the like of which I had never seen before. I saw them in numerous places all around the shore of the lake, wherever the water was shallow and in the sun. On the way out, I saw this Marmot sitting next to the trail.



It was nice an warm in the sun as I had my lunch, though a bit breezy. As is typical of many mountain lakes, the water is very clear, and in this case, had quite a greenish tinge in the proper light. While there still were some blue skies, the setting was just perfect, but the clouds began to roll in just as I was leaving the lake, around 12:30.



The hike up to the ridge west of Mystic Lake was quite nice, not bad at all, as far as uphills go, and the meadows were quite nice. I was afforded a few nice views of the northwestern side of Rainier before the clouds obscurred it completely. I also was able to pick out Skyscraper Mountain and Pass quite easily in the distance, the highest peak in the third picture, with the pass at the 'saddle'. I also saw a strange looking rectangular cave on Old Desolate, the mountain to the north of Mystic Lake, which almost looked like an old mine of sorts.



The view from the last high point on my hike was quite amazing, looking down into Moraine Park, with the vast Carbon Glacier in the background. Though up close, it's every bit as dirty and ugly as the Winthrop Glacier, from afar, one or two thousand feet above, it still looks pretty good! It began to rain lightly as I dropped down into Moraine Park. However, with the park being more or less flat, it was a nice change from the previous trails being either up or down, so I found I could hike fast enough to evade what little rain was falling, and make good time in the process. I needed to be down to Ipsut Creek camp by 5:00 to get my ride from Dad, so I figured 7.6 miles of almost all downhill from Mystic Lake would give me enough time.



There was no shortage of creeks and waterfalls on this section of the trail. The sun came out just as I stopped to take this first picture of Moraine Creek, which flows right next to the trail for quite some time, before making a steep plunge off to the west. The next stream, though much smaller, ran right over the trail in a beautiful cascade down deep green mossy rocks on both sides. At this point, it started to actually rain, so I stopped under a tree and put my rain gear on, including my pack's rain cover, just in case. As you would expect, as soon as I got back on the trail, the rain stopped. I left the rain gear on though, as I didn't think I had the time to spare to put it all back away.



Here we see Dick Creek Camp, just uphill from the Carbon Glacier overlook. There was a bit of sun peeking out onto the base of Mother Mountain, and even a little onto the trail, which warmed the air slightly. There were only two hikers, and one family or four to be seen near the glacier. A healthy bunch of ocean spray made for an unusual sight in front of the glacier, and I can't say that I've seen that particular plant anywhere else in the park before.



The Carbon Glacier looked rather different than it had in mid-July, having some large caves and holes in the snout. The sheer length and nature of the canyon walls surrounding this glacier make it much more impressive to me, than the Winthrop.



Ah, finally the suspension bridge, only three miles to go, with an hour and a half to spare, easy! This time, there was nobody in sight, so there was no waiting to go across, nor anybody complaining when I snapped a few pictures from the middle of the bridge. I did see one backpacker just on the west side of the bridge.



The sun came out again behind Cataract Creek, making for a sparkling sight. In just under a mile I was back to the Northern Loop Trail junction, making a complete loop at last! I was also glad to get to this point and get back on a bit softer trail, as opposed to the rocks comprising most of the trail between Dick Creek Camp and this point. I had only walked about nine miles at this point, but with over 5000 feet of downhill with my overnight pack on, my feet were burning up! I had a full hour left, and was making haste to get back to Ipsut Creek a little earlier than 5:00. I saw just one more hiker, about 1/3 mile from Ipsut Creek, and arrived 10 minutes before 5:00, to find Dad already there and waiting! I was very happy to get my feet out of hiking boots and back into my tennis shoes, and soon enough, be at home relaxing on the couch! Thanks again for the pickup, Dad!

All told, with just over 39 miles traveled in less than a week, this wouldn't exactly be called an easy hike. It's a lot of elevation gain no matter if you go counterclockwise or clockwise, or start at Sunrise instead of Ipsut Creek. Normally people do it in four days instead of five, and do not go the extra four to five miles to Sunrise. I thought it would be a true shame to hike all the way from Ipsut Creek to just a couple miles west of Sunrise, and not go all the way! This is a great hike at Rainier to take, if you enjoy privacy and solitude, especially the section between the Carbon River and Grand Park.