Heading back over the border now – and guess what, this is a special day for Ajey! 20 years ago, to the date, 8th August 1996 – Ajey flew to Chicago, to come to the US for the very first time!! And here we are, 2 decades later – entering the US!! Have to say, this did distract me from the whole panic-at-the-border thing I usually have going!! The funny thing was, all cars were being inspected – and the customs official asked if we had any jewelry or purses to declare!! What – I didn’t know people went to Canada to shop – totally missed that one!!

Driving past Seattle again – Mt. Rainier, here we come!! The drive was very peaceful – not much traffic, winding roads and towering evergreen trees. The only cloud on the horizon – was literally the clouds on the horizon – ominous, gray clouds threatening to rain all over our Mt. Rainier stay! Lunch was at a delightful Mexican restaurant in a charming little town by the name of Enumclaw – no, I’m not making that up – and believe it or not, it was by far the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten, hands down!!

By the time we arrived at our hotel – the Crystal Mountain resorts – it was drizzling lightly. The hotel itself was a bit disappointing – for $200 a night – I expected it to be, well, not quite so basic. The room had a weird smell – Lysol and wet cat and damp – and the bathroom was tiny – actually, the sink was in the room, right by the TV! This was more like a lodge – calling it a resort was really misleading!! Despite the rain, Ajey ventured out to get the lay of the land – he really was keen to start hiking, but the weather just did not want to co-operate!! We had an early night – a lovely dinner at the Alpine Inn, then a bit of the Olympics on TV – and off to bed!! Tomorrow, rain or shine, we climb!!

Crystal Mountain is exactly opposite Mt. Rainier – so we wouldn’t actually be hiking on Mt. Rainier, but once we got to the summit of Crystal mountain, we would be rewarded with a glorious view of Mt. Rainier (hopefully), and lunch at the imaginatively named Summit Place restaurant (definitely). It was very tempting to ride up in the gondolas – but we had planned to hike, and hike we would!! There are different trails to go from the Base Area to the Summit – we started along the Kelly’s Gap Road, which would take us to the Green Valley trail all the way to the top! A distance of 3.3 miles, climbing from 4400 feet to 6872 feet!!

The weather still hadn’t improved – the clouds had settled deep into the valley, right up to the Base Area! At least it wasn’t raining – but the cold, oh the cold!! We didn’t have any really, really warm clothes – and neither did we have proper hiking shoes – too heavy to carry over!! Breakfast at the Alpine Inn again, and then we started walking…a steady upward slope along the trail. Not a soul in sight and the clouds all around us making the trees appear ghostly – I wouldn’t have liked to b here by myself!! And then we walked, and walked and walked some more…

Gorgeous views of the valley and the gondolas as we kept walking…

And then an unexpected Cat sighting…

The cloud cover would shift for an instant, a tantalizing glimpse of the blue, blue sky – and gone as quickly as it had appeared!!

Finally, there it is – the first glimpse of Summit Place – not quite so fast, though!! Still an hour left!! Frankly, I was just about done – the only thing that kept me going was the cold – walking was warmer than staying in place. And we were beginning to feel the absence of gloves, hats, scarves and boots! It took us more than 4 hours – and Ajey and Manasi would have probably been faster without me!

And the view?? Well, after 4 hours of literally walking in the clouds – we had resigned ourselves to no Mt. Rainier – the lunch was good, though!! Manasi and I took the gondola down, and Ajey decided to walk down the Crystal Mountain trail – I can’t believe he still has the energy. My legs were definitely feeling a wee bit shivery and rubbery and walking in the cold again was just too hard to contemplate – I know, I’m a wimp – but hey, I did make it up, didn’t I?!! We didn’t linger at the Base Area – as soon as Ajey arrived, we left for Seattle – looking forward to a nice hot shower, and then bed!! I do wish we could have seen Mt. Rainier, though…