Mt Rainier!

Away early to get out of this city traffic....

Headed to Packwood, cause the Sectional Chart shows an airfield near Mt Rainier.  Locked gate and had to do lots of hunting around to find someone who knows the combination.....  But just a perfect airstrip for me.  Set up and took off, and right away had a fine view of Mt Rainier!  Dead calm, so fine flying.  Climbed higher and higher and up a ridge toward the mountain.  Very tempted to fly right up to the snow....  Could just about glide back to the strip from there, but not quite, and 'not quite' is not good enough, eh....  Stayed up there for an hour, just thrilled to have it actually happening!  I had dreamed of such a flight for years, but didn't have a lot of hope of actually being able to do it this up close.....

 First view of Mt Rainier, Packwood airstrip below.

Getting closer.

And closer....

Could just see Mt hood in the distance.

 Couldn't fly to Mt St Helens, due to all 'Tiger Country', so drove to this viewpoint

This poster shows how much of the top of the mountain blew away.

Camped at Strom Airfield, at nearby Morton, and this was the scene next morning...

So I was really lucky with the weather....