|
|
| Introduction |
Circumambulation and circumprostration
of mountains are rituals sacred to Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist cultures,
the foremost example being that of Mt Kailash. Closer to home is the girivalam
of Mt. Arunachala at Tiruvannamalai. For centuries, pilgrims old and young
have been carrying out this sacred ritual. Other religious faiths also
have variations of this concept like at Kabba or at Jericho. Circumambulation
of mountains is largely unknown in the New World although the indigenous
Native Americans hold mountains sacred. Tahoma (or Mt Rainier as the anthropocentric
Europeans who came much later renamed it) was and is still sacred
to most of the tribes of North America's Pacific North West region. A dormant
volcano looming nearly 14410 ft above sea level, Rainier is to Seattle
what Mt Fuji is to Japan. My friend Chris McCarthy and I had been planning
to circumambulate a mountain in North America and Rainier was, hence, a
perfect choice. Not only is it sacred, there also exists a trail encircling
the mountain known as the Wonderland trail. Rainier also held special significance
for me as Seattle was where I landed when I went to study at the University
of Washington, exactly 12 years prior and I was relocating to India after
this trip. I had hiked in Mount Rainier National Park many times but the
Wonderland trail was always a distant dream. Chris, the veteran hiker,
had climbed Mt. Rainier as a teenager with his mother. In keeping with
the spiritual nature of our trip, Chris and I also took ten precepts, a
not uncommon Buddhist practice, in a solemn ceremony at a Srilankan Buddhist
vihara in Washington DC. While the first five precepts usually taken by
most Buddhist laypeople were to not harm, steal, indulge in sexual misconduct,
lie or intoxicate, the last five usually taken on special occasions included
avoiding dancing/singing/music/mime, not using perfumes/adornment, not
using high seats, not accepting gold/silver and not eating untimely meals
(i.e. after noon). We had to take exception to the last precept as dinner
was going to be our only real meal.
| Planning |
Most of the planning was
done two weeks in advance including getting the food for caches, gear assembly/purchase
and permit. The most important thing to plan ahead is the food cache and
the reservation of campsites which if you looked at the number of available
campsites would seem hard. We waited till the last minute to FAX it in
and somehow lucked out. Reading the book (from hereon 'the book' refers
to Bette Filey's Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail)
would have helped in picking the sites and planning each day's mileage
but we did not get it till the last minute. We decided to start from Longmire;
however if you are getting to the park by bus or even otherwise, Paradise
is a better starting and ending point. The book suggests other possible
sites like Ipsut or Box canyon but you need a car for that. Caching food
is important if you do not want to carry food for 8-10 days with you and
believe us you will not.
So we flew into Seattle on Friday, Sep 12th 2003 from DC and SF and left
for Rainier on Saturday Sep 13th.
Official
NPS website for campsite reservation and other info
| Gear |
Camera
Canon Powershot A70 with
4 AA batteries and 4 spare, 128 Mb compact flash
Water
We used iodine which was
easy to use and better than chlorinated city tap water instead of any fancy
pump filters.
Food
Breakfast-
granola, evaporated milk, chai bags (pre-spiced tea which never failed
to hit the spot every day, we got the yogi spiced tea from trader joe's).
After day 2 we invented a new concept called chai granola where you make
chai and pour onto your granola
Lunch-
gorp (we made it ourselves with peanuts, raisins, cranberries, sunflower
seeds, almonds), dried mangoes and apricots, hummus (from mix, just add
cold water) and crackers
Dinner-
couscous with black beans (dried, from box) or pasta soup (Fantastic),
rice (Uncle Ben's) with split pea soup (Fantastic), Ramen noodles with
freeze dried peas and/or corn (REI) , Hot chocolate/green tea
Spices-
salt, sugar, chili powder, rasam powder (this totally transformed the dishes,
i got homemade but you should get it in any indian grocery store) in film
canisters.
Other musthaves
Tent, sleeping bag, warms,
multiple pairs of socks, flash lights, stove (we had a wood burning one
which we used also but it generated lots of smoke), fuel, spare zip lock
bags for waterproofing and storing, diary, pen/pencil, maps, compass, cash,
ropes and carbiners (for bear bagging; note that almost every campsite
had a bear pole which we used by dumping all our food in the sleeping bag's
sack). Note that we got free white gas fuel at the ranger station in Longmire
but the excellent store there stocks it as well. Also excellent water proof
maps are available there which is a good idea.
Caching
We mailed two boxes of food
to the caches at Mowich lake and Sunrise visitor center (addresses can
be found here ).
Use paint containers or plastic boxes as they are rodent proof. We lucked
out despite using cardboard boxes because the rangers put them in metal
trash cans !!
Transport
We took the Grayline bus
tour from downtown Seattle at 8 AM (Cost 49$ roundtrip) which reached Paradise
at 12 PM. We then hitched a ride to Longmire and then started our hike. On the return, we took the bus back from Paradise 11 days later. Note that the
bus did not stop at Longmire on our way out so find out the schedule if
you plan a different pickup.
|
|