WASHINGTON TARN SUNRISE

I saw a picture of this place two weeks before this image was taken and knew I had to go! I find out the where it is, how to get there and what the hike is like. Over the years my body has taking me on some fairly strenuous hikes and climbs, 26+miles one way with a heavy pack, volcano summits, frigid temps and the like. I never think of any of the adventures as monumental because reading and other friends has shown me there are humans out there pushing the limits of the body way harder than I am. With that said, I still have been personally challenged many times in the snow and on the trail. The information I found about this particular trail was simple: a very steep hike, gaining over 3k vertical in around 1.5 miles. Yes please; I hadn’t tested out my now healed broken back with true backpack weight on it and this trip would do that. Lining up a good friend to join was easy, Ian, he loves backpacking. I set a date and the weather looks great! One day before the seven hour drive and the weather suddenly takes a turn, showers and clouds. I cancel and reschedule the trip for the following week. Again, the weather looks great until one day before the trip, showers and clouds. I cancel and reschedule the trip to leave four days later. A side note: more often than not, magical places have a special way of kicking your ass, as a way of saying ‘yes, I am incredible, but you are going to get initiated'; this place was weather :) I plan a Fullmoon rise shoot the day before we were to leave and knew this wouldn’t give me much time to sleep. I said to myself ‘whatever,' this is how I live, striking while the iron is hot. I shoot the moon until 10pm the night before departure, get to bed at 12pm (I was already packed and good to go), woke up at 3am, picked Ian up at 4am and hit the road to Washington! Although I was tired, I love beginning road trips into dawn and sunrise, especially to new places. The drive was peaceful, great conversations and good traffic flow. We begin to see the Washington cascades and my soul started to get that childlike feeling of joy; I hadn’t backpacked in this area in over a decade. I was elated! We arrive at the trailhead around 10:30am (as I said the traffic flow was great), nothing more than the side of a road, love it! The beginning of the trail was flat off an on, not that worn in, again, I love this. There were a few Salmon berries to be found at the beginning, tasted delicious and a nice welcoming to a new spot. The flats of the trail ended and then we saw what I had read about, the beginning of what would be a continuous combination of steep dirt, roots and rock with no real reprieve until we reached what you see in this image. I have done way more technical backpacking, requiring ropes and helmet, but this trail was technical in its own way: if you slipped or made a wrong step, you had a high probability of getting broke off, not death, but an injury that would hurt. Even though this hike was very strenuous, probably the hardest hike of most people’s life, knowing it wasn’t very long made it somewhat easy. After 3-4hrs, the mostly beautiful forested, with glimpses of the towering rock face you see in the image, hike was over and we arrived. The views, the views, I’ll say it again, the views were incredible!!! The small piece of land we were going to camp on was epic, it was like a penthouse suite, nothing obstructing your vision 360 degrees. We could see Mt. Rainier, the Enchantments a raging wildfire and four prominent peaks surrounding our campsite. Bliss. I could keep writing about this trip for days, like many trips of this beauty, there is so much you absorb, feel and see in such a short amount of time. I won’t. We enjoyed a 10/10 sunset, an epic moonrise and this 10/10 sunrise. The hike down was in some ways brutal, it continously pounded your legs for a few hours, if you fell going down, it might be more than just an injury. We had a few minor slips, nothing major. If you ever wanted a photo to teleport yourself to a magical place, this is it, you are Ian in the red jacket. This was a 36hr. trip and a perfect way (in my mind) to enjoy life! Btw, the back felt great during and after :)