Greetings from Glacier Dorm computer room.... Yes it's been awhile and I apologize for such delays in between posts. Again, things are busy and there are so many beautiful sights to be seen rather than the same slow computer screen. Hope you can forgive me. I have been here a little over two months, with yesterday being the 2 month mark of my first day of work. After all this time, the mountain still manages to keep me on my toes. I walked up to my "cell phone reception spot" the other day and could barely find my way. A week earlier I had been climbing up banks of snow but it has recently all melted and avalanche lilies and trees I never dreamed were there were in it's place. I was a bit turned around but extremely excited about my newly found pavement trail. New exploration sights are being uncovered and I'm learning of secret lakes and spots to visit in the future. Now all I need is a day off.....
Many fun happenings have been going around. I hiked up to panorama point a couple weeks ago around sunset with my friends Zack and Robert. At that time there was snow, so we wandered up and found a large random rock to crawl up and take pictures of the beautiful sunset with a couple of Rainier beers. It was beautiful and fun to go back down through the trails in the dark and get use out of my trusty head lamp Mom and Dad picked up for me for graduation. We had a great conversation about Religion and I listened to some great viewpoints.
July 4th was spent at work sadly, and I didn't get to see any fireworks from behind the front desk but luckily my Ukrainian friend Sergi celebrated his 19th birthday on the fifth. About 25 of us gathered around our trusty fire pit found behind the gates of the park and celebrated with a cake to the face, a cake to eat (confetti cake made by me!) and some glorious fireworks! It was a great time and we all enjoy the times we can all get together as a group. We are quite the firebuilders as well.
that's not the end yet! One afternoon, my little Italian friend Chad (aka Chadly) and I decided to hike up Eagle peak. Its a 3.6 mile one way hike up to a high peak. The first 3 miles were mainly semi-steep swithbacks through the woods but opened up at about the 3 mile mark to a steep slope covered with up and coming wildflowers. We climbed up the slope to reach the saddle, the area in between two peaks, and the end of the "maintained trail". But that didn't stop Chadly and I. He had been up this far before and passed down to me the knowledge of a mountain goat trail that led up to the very tip of the peak. We scrambled up the side fairly easily with Chad leading the way. He managed to spot a mountain goat around a corner but it vanished before I could get up far enough to catch a glance. bummer! But not too much further we reached the very top and settled down to eat lunch amongst the awesome view of Rainier. We could see Mt. St. Helens again as well as Adams and Hood way in the distance. We could even see our dorm and Paradise as well as the Inn at Longmire all at the same time. We hung out with a grey jay, that ate seeds out of the palm of my hand, and took pictures of course before heading back down in time for me to mosey into work. It was an exhilarating experience as well as a workout. My calves were killing me days after.
Last week I was lucky enough to catch a couple days off with my good friend Zack. We talked to some people and got some great information from Ed, the kind and wise gift shop man, about a point on the Olympic peninsula were you could do some backcountry camping at a point on the beach and rainforest. This was called Sand Point. We took off after my audit about Midnight on Monday night (couldn't get off the mountain soon enough) and drove about 4.5 hours to around Quinalt lake in Olympic National Park. Around 2am we stopped in Olympia and found a great 24 hour grocery store called Ralph's that had EVERYTHING. We were pumped with our find and extremely impressed. Around 4 we started getting tired and found the national park and we camped for a few hours to get some sleep and finished out the trip in the morning. It was about a 6.5 hour drive total up to Ozette, WA where we left the car and packed all our tents and sleeping bags in our bags and backpacked 3 miles through the rain forest to the edge of the peninsula and a glorious beach! It was an amazing sight and not very many people around which was nice for a change. When we got to the beach in the early afternoon we sent up our tent and went exploring. At that time the tide was low, so it created many little tide pools filled with hermit crabs, some fish, and anenamies. We off course found a big rock/cliff that was easy enough to climb up and enjoy the view. From there we spotted a million star fish and mussels below us and a single sea lion in the distance! "What's that white thing on that rock?" "I dunno, it's not really moving" "It moved!!!!" We called out to it to come closer and bring friends but it didn't respond much. For dinner, we ate freeze dried chicken and noodles from a package and granola bars we stole from the kitchens at work. It was a bit cold and cloudy but we just bundled up, relaxed on the beach, and watched the sun set over the water before heading to bed. In the morning, we woke up to rain and high tide but bundled up again for some hill climbing and viewing the ocean from above. Then we packed up and hiked back. Since we were in no rush to go back to work, we drove around the peninsula towards Port Angeles where we got to see more of the park and stopped for dinner before heading to the mountain. We arrived back around 1 am, enough time to catch a few hours of sleep before heading into work again. It was a very pleasant escape for a few days and we enjoyed our "Zack and Annie Adventure" immensely.
Well, that about wraps things up for now. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer. Many pictures will be posted as soon as I can get a better internet connection (maybe this week?) Please keep in touch and let me know what your up to! I miss and think about everyone constantly. Love you all!-Annie
Many fun happenings have been going around. I hiked up to panorama point a couple weeks ago around sunset with my friends Zack and Robert. At that time there was snow, so we wandered up and found a large random rock to crawl up and take pictures of the beautiful sunset with a couple of Rainier beers. It was beautiful and fun to go back down through the trails in the dark and get use out of my trusty head lamp Mom and Dad picked up for me for graduation. We had a great conversation about Religion and I listened to some great viewpoints.
July 4th was spent at work sadly, and I didn't get to see any fireworks from behind the front desk but luckily my Ukrainian friend Sergi celebrated his 19th birthday on the fifth. About 25 of us gathered around our trusty fire pit found behind the gates of the park and celebrated with a cake to the face, a cake to eat (confetti cake made by me!) and some glorious fireworks! It was a great time and we all enjoy the times we can all get together as a group. We are quite the firebuilders as well.
that's not the end yet! One afternoon, my little Italian friend Chad (aka Chadly) and I decided to hike up Eagle peak. Its a 3.6 mile one way hike up to a high peak. The first 3 miles were mainly semi-steep swithbacks through the woods but opened up at about the 3 mile mark to a steep slope covered with up and coming wildflowers. We climbed up the slope to reach the saddle, the area in between two peaks, and the end of the "maintained trail". But that didn't stop Chadly and I. He had been up this far before and passed down to me the knowledge of a mountain goat trail that led up to the very tip of the peak. We scrambled up the side fairly easily with Chad leading the way. He managed to spot a mountain goat around a corner but it vanished before I could get up far enough to catch a glance. bummer! But not too much further we reached the very top and settled down to eat lunch amongst the awesome view of Rainier. We could see Mt. St. Helens again as well as Adams and Hood way in the distance. We could even see our dorm and Paradise as well as the Inn at Longmire all at the same time. We hung out with a grey jay, that ate seeds out of the palm of my hand, and took pictures of course before heading back down in time for me to mosey into work. It was an exhilarating experience as well as a workout. My calves were killing me days after.
Last week I was lucky enough to catch a couple days off with my good friend Zack. We talked to some people and got some great information from Ed, the kind and wise gift shop man, about a point on the Olympic peninsula were you could do some backcountry camping at a point on the beach and rainforest. This was called Sand Point. We took off after my audit about Midnight on Monday night (couldn't get off the mountain soon enough) and drove about 4.5 hours to around Quinalt lake in Olympic National Park. Around 2am we stopped in Olympia and found a great 24 hour grocery store called Ralph's that had EVERYTHING. We were pumped with our find and extremely impressed. Around 4 we started getting tired and found the national park and we camped for a few hours to get some sleep and finished out the trip in the morning. It was about a 6.5 hour drive total up to Ozette, WA where we left the car and packed all our tents and sleeping bags in our bags and backpacked 3 miles through the rain forest to the edge of the peninsula and a glorious beach! It was an amazing sight and not very many people around which was nice for a change. When we got to the beach in the early afternoon we sent up our tent and went exploring. At that time the tide was low, so it created many little tide pools filled with hermit crabs, some fish, and anenamies. We off course found a big rock/cliff that was easy enough to climb up and enjoy the view. From there we spotted a million star fish and mussels below us and a single sea lion in the distance! "What's that white thing on that rock?" "I dunno, it's not really moving" "It moved!!!!" We called out to it to come closer and bring friends but it didn't respond much. For dinner, we ate freeze dried chicken and noodles from a package and granola bars we stole from the kitchens at work. It was a bit cold and cloudy but we just bundled up, relaxed on the beach, and watched the sun set over the water before heading to bed. In the morning, we woke up to rain and high tide but bundled up again for some hill climbing and viewing the ocean from above. Then we packed up and hiked back. Since we were in no rush to go back to work, we drove around the peninsula towards Port Angeles where we got to see more of the park and stopped for dinner before heading to the mountain. We arrived back around 1 am, enough time to catch a few hours of sleep before heading into work again. It was a very pleasant escape for a few days and we enjoyed our "Zack and Annie Adventure" immensely.
Well, that about wraps things up for now. Hope everyone is having an awesome summer. Many pictures will be posted as soon as I can get a better internet connection (maybe this week?) Please keep in touch and let me know what your up to! I miss and think about everyone constantly. Love you all!-Annie
posted by Annie at 1:16 PM
1 comments
