Day Hike - Shriner Peak

We arrived at the Shriner Peak trailhead on Thursday at 8:45 a.m. with plenty of room for parking. After brief introductions, I asked the group if they wanted to refresh their skills with paper map and compass. Everyone seemed very interested, so we started off by looking at the route, what to glean from the map, and estimate how long it would take to reach the summit.  We began a long, steady climb through beautiful forest, and the temperature quickly warmed up for this time of year. We stopped at an overlook for a snack before continuing to the summit. Soon after, the trail opened up into gorgeous red colored meadows. We could see the fire smoke haze from nearby Goat Rocks, but fortunately most of it stayed distant from us for the remainder of our hike.

The views of Mount Rainier were spectacular.

Upon reaching the summit, we explored one of four remaining fire-lookout towers in MRNP built in the 1930s.

We had a leisurely lunch enjoying views of Mount Rainier and surrounding peaks. I followed up with basic map and compass skills, including how to orient the map, transferring a point in the field to the map, and transferring a point on the map to the field, without using a cell phone app or GPS. Everyone seemed pleased to refresh their skills as we identified some of the MRNP 100 Peaks, including close-by Double Peak and Bald Rock. It was truly an enjoyable day with our group of 7 Mountaineers!