Day 26 - 8/10/2004 - Are we really halfway home?

Another beautiful morning in Glacier National Park - no rain and very cool, but not cold.  Hunter and I got up about 7:15, packed up, and headed west.  At the time we left, we were unsure if we would go to Mt. Rainier or North Cascades park.  Hunter and I found a Burger King along the way, and wolfed down copious amounts of biscuits and cini-minis.  After some map and timetable review, we decided to head toward Rainier.  The plan is to spend a couple of days at Rainier, and then head over to Seattle, down to St. Helens for a climb, and then down to Portland OR.

As we meandered through Idaho (again), I gave Joe Hamby a call.  Joe is a good friend of mine that I used to work with at NEXCOM (he still works for NEXCOM, but now lives in Seattle).  We spoke for a while and hopefully will be able to get together later this week.

As we threaded our way through the canyons outside of Yakima, it hit me - we are halfway through our trip.  We had originally planned for 6 weeks, then decided to extend it a bit.  Hunter has to be back for school by Labor Day, and that would be 52 days total.  One one side we are really just getting into the swing of things.  Hunter is a whiz at setting up his tent!  On the other hand, I'm betting by Sept. we will be ready to get home - we already greatly miss Gay and Fischer (and Hunter misses his Gecko, Dog, etc.).  

As we neared Washington, Hunter just glowed with anticipation.  He loves everything about this place, especially the coffee, salmon, and Mt. Rainier.  We managed to get a spot in the Ohanapecosh Campground just after dark.  If all goes well, we may head up to Sunrise (north side of park) and backpack a few miles in for the night.  I think the Persiad Meteor Shower is at zenith tomorrow night.  How often do you get to see a meteor shower on Mt. Rainier?