Saturday, June 9, 2012

Bethel Ridge and Mt Rainier NP

Heidi and I decided to go camping.  We needed to get out of the house and I wanted to test out sleeping inside the Landcruiser.  I've got Washington Byways books with a bunch of drives in Washington state.  I picked out Bethel Ridge because I'd never been there before and it was supposed to have great views of Mt Rainier.

We left Monday morning stopping at Safeway for gas and Starbucks, Costco for the sleeping pads, and Cabelas for a hatchet.   Turning off Highway 12 at FS1500 we started up Bethel Ridge.  We made a stop at Tieton Pond on the way up to fish a little and rearrange the gear.  Tieton Pond was nothing like the Grand Tietons or anything.  Fishing was a bust because there were so many weeds in the lake.  It probably is mosquito heaven/ camper hell in the summer.



Driving further up we made the turn on the road marked "Microwave" and started to run into small patches of snow.  This road runs NE along Bethel Ridge.  In a particular shaddy spot I ran into a fairly large pile of snow.  Creeping up on it seemed solid.  I made a few passes advancing each time until I had a broken trail up to the crest of the pile and a little further.  Now I figured I could get some speed and break trail down the other side of the pile.  This is where the Landcruiser broke through the crust of ice and got really stuck.  I also lost my wedding ring in this snowpile.  Flew off my hand and I wasn't able to find it.


I started digging at about 4pm.  A few minutes I pursed reverse, but that was slightly uphill so I switched and went for the long dig straight out.  This would leave me trapped on the other side but there was a possible bypass, and at least I could find a flat stop to spend the night and rest before more digging in the morning.  Around 7pm I got unstuck.  Now clothes fully soaked I headed up the road to the top of the ridge and made camp.





Heidi and I had macaroni and cheese with a sausage.  Heidi would not sit with the blanket so I held her to keep warm.  We slept inside the Landcruiser on the sleeping pad I got at Costco.  It was about par with tent camping.  A few revisions and it should be awesome for car camping.   Heidi enjoyed the bed time routine and I felt like she was playing along, like this was some big pretend bedtime, but eventually she fell asleep.  I was too stressed about getting out to really sleep.  Also I parked at what I thought was level but it felt slightly head down.




In the morning we woke up and it was 30 deg and snowing.  Wind was probably about 30mph on the ridge.  It was freezing.  I threw everything in the vehicle.  Heidi got the coldest diaper change ever and we were on our way down at about 6am.  Getting to the pile it seemed much larger in the morning.  Knowing how much digging I did the day before I had a lot left.  I opted for the risky bypass.  It would start down some steep rocks, then threaded between a stump and a tree, then a small snowfield (flat though), then up a muddy track about 3ft tall.    I prepped by moving rocks on the rocky slop to clear any differential killers and filled in a hole or two to make the descent smoother, then I shoveled the snowfield to make sure I wouldn't get stuck there.  Then I took the bypass and made it through no problem.





Free now, we made a beeline for Whistling Jack's for some hot breakfast.  We just hung out, regrouping and warming up from 7:30 to 9:30.  Breakfast was amazing.  We headed out over Chinook Pass, Hwy 410 to Mt Rainer.  We headed up toward Paradise (park was free from that entrance for some reason)  and checked out the new visitor center.  Heidi was a hawk for spotting animals.  At Longmire we checked out the transportation exhibit and the old wooden bridge they've got.  There were a bunch of deer at Longmire which Heidi spotted.







After that we headed back to Aberdeen.  We were home by 3pm.  460 miles round trip.

Bed Photos:


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