Third Leg - White River Campground to Shadow Lake

For the third leg of my journey, I chose to hike on the Northwest side of the mountain near Sunrise.  Although not very long, this was a pretty strenuous workout. 

We started in White River Campground and hiked the trail up to Sunrise.  In general, this is not the way most people hike it, however, given that this was a there and back hike, I generally choose to go uphill first.  Basically get it over with. 

The difficult part of this hike is the first 2.6 miles which includes an elevation gain of over 2000 feet.  We got to the Sunrise Rim Trail junction
a couple of hours later, and spent the afternoon up around Sunrise.  Needless to say, the hike back to the car went much quicker.