Knapsack Pass, Spray Park, Observation Rock via Echo Rock, Flett Glacier & Hessong Rock and Mount Pleasant — Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich

Did a wonderful overnight loop of Knapsack to Observation Rock to Spray Park catching some of this rare warm and sunny weather into October. Obtained backcountry permit at Carbon River Ranger station then drove the long bumpy drive up Mowich Rd. (~21 miles; 45 min going fast) to the campground parking lot. They are expanding Mowich campground with many more sites but are extremely close together for a "unique" communal wilderness camping experience. Knapsack trail starts at the end of the lake trail past the ranger station cabin. Easy to follow unmaintained unofficial trail showing a good bit of wear. 1.5 miles to the pass. Nice views up the valley and great at the pass. Relatively straightforward trail continues and then dissapears into the bolder field and heads generally SE near 6000' elevation profile then climbs the Mt Pleasant ridge around 6120'. Intersect Spray Park/Wonderland at 3.1 miles Observation/Echo route splits off of Spray Park/Wonderland at 3.6 miles to the right up the ridge at 6350'. Various paths run up the ridge to Flett Glacier area with Observation Rock on right and Echo Rock on Left. A nice little lake was at the bottom of the glacier with another camper set up beside it. I headed to Observation along the loose rock ridge on the right and ran into some rather sketchy steep rock slopes around 7600'. The preferred route is to cross the glacier at the bottom and head to Echo first and loop around to Observation from the ridge behind. I got through the steep rock section and then joined the loose lava pebble scramble route to the top from the South to the benchmark at 8376' just in time for a cloud to sock me in and block all photo opportunities. Then looped around to the East along the upper ridge avoiding any hard ice glacier travel to a steep rock descent to the obvious path up Echo on the South side. It looks challenging from below but only one real all fours spot toward the top with not really much exposure (although should have protection if traveling with others since the rock is supper loose). Scrambled back down and descended to the bottom of Flett glacier along East side with good snow traction and only two small crevasses. Rock fall letting loose on other side of glacier and on other slopes around. Descended to nice protected camp location around 6800' on dried out snowfield gravel patch near an old walled camp. Saw a few ptarmigans but that was it for wildlife. Lucked out with relatively warm (43º) night and amazing stars before moon rose late. Returned via Spray Park old route connecting with main trail at 5850' after 1.5 miles and then decided to head up the Hessong rock/Mt Pleasant ridge for a nice view. This was totally worth the short climb to 6150' adding another 1.1 mile with great views of the entire area that I had explored the day before. Back down Spray Park trail I caught a quick view of Spray Falls in the sunshine before descending into dense clouds at 4800' back to the lake and all the way back to Seattle. A great day finding solitude in the wonderful Rainier backcountry