Fun in the Shmoosh

Drew and I have an interesting habit of deciding to hike up to high places in the Spring and Fall.  Each time we do this we notice an odd phenomenon which causes the ground to be covered in white, slushy, shmooshy stuff that is incredibly difficult to walk on.  Someday when I grow up and become an inventor I'm going to make some sort of webbing on a frame that will fit below your shoes and allow you to walk over this stuff instead of pushing through it (our current method of choice).

For this weekends trip, we (er, well, I, but I didn't make it snow this winter, so I take no responsiblity for the trail conditions) decided to do the Rampart Ridge loop trail from Longmire.

It all started out green enough, with nice little patches of the white stuff here and there. but mostly nice, brown dirt to be found on the trail.

Drew is even still smiling at this point, not having yet begun to curse my name for suggesting we climb to 4000 feet in April.

See that white blob above the ice mostly covered by the fog and rain?  Thats where Mount Rainier would be if it wasn't so foggy and rainy.

Here is Drew crossing the snow.

Here is Drew stuck in the snow.

Here is drew smiling for the camera while stuck in the snow.

Where we were when we were stuck in the snow.  The height and steepness is a little underwhelming in this shot as I had to aim the camera uphill to take it all in.

Almost back down to the dirt.

Ahhhhh, dirt.