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Trip Report: Day 4 of 8 (Sunday, June 30, 2002)
I woke up at 5:15 AM. Yes, 5:15 AM. It was getting bright out and for some reason, my body thought it had enough sleep. I could sleep no more at all. This wasn't good because I knew for sure that I needed rest for my cold. The cold had now developed a little more, but seemed to be stalling. The vast amounts of water, Vitamin C, Halls and Dayquil seemed to be helping a bit. I laid around thinking about what to do until Saeed woke. He headed down to the climbing rangers office and appeared later with the same story -- Monday and Tuesday were looking awesome for climbing. I informed Saeed that my cold could perhaps keep me from summitting, but we all had an idea that if I got up to Camp Muir, it might be a different story. I took a shower, cleaned up and decided to try it.
After a flurry of activity, we had our stuff packed into the car, our gear waiting patiently for its trip, and all of us excited to head up to 10,100'. At 11:15 AM, we took our first steps toward Camp Muir. I took a last glance at Paradise Inn and started up. The trail was nice, but the gear was heavy. I would guestimate about 50 or so pounds attached to my back. I was feeling well, and the outside air was helping immensely. As long as I kept hydrated and a Halls in my mouth every hour or so, I was doing fine. It was still cloudy and after about 2 hours of hiking, we entered the clouds. This time, however, the clouds were mostly dry, except for a bit of Rime Ice.
The trip from Paradise (5,420') to Camp Muir (10,100') is only 4.5 miles, but it seemed to drag on forever. It could have been the gear in my pack, but I felt like I was taking one step forward and two back. Finally however, we were around 9,000' and starting to see a hint of blue sky. Also, the temperatures were actually warming as we were getting higher, meaning we should pop out of the clouds very soon. At about 9,600', we did pop out of the clouds and I was stunned to see the upper massif of Mt. Rainier sunning itself... it looked beyond HUGE. Just a little more hiking along the Muir Snowfield and we reached the camp. Camp Muir was nicely positioned on the mountain and looked very safe from what I saw. It felt great to get my pack off my hips and relax after a long hike like that. It was about 6:30 PM, and we only had an hour or so before the sun would set behind the mountain. So, we immediately grabbed an open spot in the public shelter at Muir, boiled some water and I headed up to bed. I wasn't feeling very well at all.
I think it was half altitude, half sickness, but I was *dead*. All I had to do was shut my eyes and I was asleep. I knew I wasn't going to benefit the group much tonight :). Saeed understood though, and passed up some Ramen Noodles and hot chocolate. I devoured them and before I knew it, I was fast asleep. I really want to thank Saeed and his girlfriend for taking care of me that night and the next day. If it wasn't for them, I am sure my sickness would have only got worse. Sleep was damn easy that night and although the bunk we were on was hard as a rock, I was out cold.
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