First Mother Mountain/Castle Peak

Today started early, I had to drive down from Everett to Mt. Rainier National park to get started around 8:00 am. But I've gotten used to waking up early, even on weekends. I met some others from the Mountaineers group and we headed up to Knapsack Pass from Mowich Lake. It was a steady but short climb from the lake to the pass. Once you reach the pass you can see a sliver of Mt. Rainier standing tall directly behind some other peaks.

From the pass we climbed some more toward our first destination for the day; First Mother Mountain.

The climb up First Mother wasn't too terribly difficult or scary. Other than some sliding loose rock and shear cliffs to your death, it was pretty straight forward to the peak. Once we were at the peak we relaxed in the sunshine, had a quick snack and enjoyed some amazing views.

Our next summit was to be Castle Peak. We climbed back down First Mother and tried to find the best way along the ridge over to our destination. After a bit of searching and discussion among the group about our route we did a little bush whacking and found a boot path toward Castle Peak. We followed that along the ridge right to the base of the peak and from there made our ascent up to Castle Peak. The climb to Castle Peak was up a rock field and hard to know which way to go. But eventually our group found the best way up it through great teamwork. By this time it was midday and was getting quite hot. So after we made it to the top we took a quick rest and headed back down to the boot path along the ridge. From there we headed down, blazing our own trail through some meadows toward Mowich Lake. We ended up on the opposite end of lake (which was planned) after descending from the mountain. From here we got onto the well maintained trail and hiked back to our starting point.

It was a good day to be out in the mountains and in such close proximity of Mt. Rainier. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine, good company and great views. Unfortunately there were A LOT of bugs. I got pretty well devoured by mosquitoes. I have to say that was the only downside to an otherwise magnificent day.

Region: Mt. Rainier National Park
Distance: 5.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 2465 ft.
Peak Elevation: 6480 ft.
Difficulty: S2, T3   
Pass Requirement: Yes, Mt. Rainier National Park Pass.

As always check out all the photos from of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.