Itinerary

I put together the itinerary for a 12-day trip and was a bit surprised.  The typical day has an effective range of 10-12 miles, which was not unexpected.  The leg that I was surprised with was the leg from Indian Creek to Longmire.  This is the one that parallels the road south of Mount Rainier.  When driving along this road from Box Canyon to Longmire, it seems to take an hour or so if you're not stopping to look at the waterfalls, Visitor's Center in Paradise, walk in the meadows.  It surprised me that this leg of the trip is only about 10 miles.  It cuts off some of the side trips, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

One of the things that tells me, though, is for one of my training hikes, we should be able to camp at Cougar Rock campground, hike to Indian Creek, overnight there and hike back.  Given that it's on the south side, that part of the trail opens a bit earlier in the summer, so I may have to give it a go in June or so.

One thing I haven't done yet is make a map of the hike for you.  There are many topographic maps, but I'm considering something that's a bit more point to point.  I'll give it a go and attach it in one of the permanent pages.

(I've since started and put one here.)