First 2 miles, almost flat, smooth trail, in the woods, some mushrooms. Around the bridges over the Fryingpan Creek, view starts to improve. Dense mountain asters, then dense valerian, interspersed with yellow and blue, once a while some red. Avalanche lilies are mostly gone. Once at Summerland, the view is expanse. Too bad, the sky was not blue today. But the fields of blue lupines compensated. Found an excellent "secret" campsite (a workers' hideout) not too far from the creek, with locked iron boxes and a red beach chair! View of Mt. Rainier too!After lunch, at 2pm, headed to Panhandle Gap, over boulders. Still lots of snow around the gap, but nothing difficult with waterproof boots and poles. 2 half frozen ponds. A group of kids were sliding down, screaming and beaming. Took me over an hour to get here. Excellent view all around. Earlier on, a group of goats were seen on the snow. The south side of the gap is more expansive, more distant mountains. Cannot see Mt. Rainier from here, but Mt Adams was looming ghostly ahead due to the clouds. It's not all the way down. Plenty of uphills. Mercifully, they are short, and punctured with flat meadows. Another hour later, reached a down slope full of flowers. Most colorful. To the right (east) is a big deep ravine with a dozen little waterfalls draping on the seemingly smooth surface. To the left, green hills with blue hue (lupine). To the front, endless layers of scenery. Ate and rested. I think it is my favorite spot on Rainier. Ohanapecosh Park? Apart from 2 campers earlier on, no people whatsoever since the gap. Didn't go further down to Indian Bar camp, but could see it from here. Maybe needs another half an hour.
Back at camp ~6:30pm. Early enough to cook and wash. Mosquitoes. Not much of a sunset tonight. Surprisingly many stars at night.
8.19. Got up at 6:30 witnessed sunrise shortly before 7am.
Too cloudy. The top of Rainier was in clouds. Did see rainbow briefly. Then it rained. I fell back to sleep inside the tent. Departed at 9:30am. Campers at Summerland all headed up. Met them on the narrow steps. A marmots was eating lupine flowers right by the trail. He stopped from time to time to stared at hikers. Very cute! On the way down to the car, met close to 100 hikers!
Drove up to Sunrise Point to enjoy a watermelon. Only here, found a nail on the right front tire. I cannot imagine anyone doing this. Had to change tire. A wonderful trip ended on a sour note and ~8 bites.
Practicality: Summerland shelter is at ~5800', 4.2 miles from the trailhead (@~3800'). 5 individual sites, 1 group site. Panhandle Gap is at 6800', 6 miles from the trailhead. Indian Bar campsite is at ~5120', 4.5 miles from Summerland, 4 individual sites, 1 group site.
