Ah ha, I did it! Along with Hikergal and L., I hiked to Summerland on Mt. Rainier. Whew! I'm too tired to wax poetic about it, so I will give the trip summary and include the pics. Here are the trip stats, many courtesy of L. and her Garmin GPS:

11 miles round trip

2689 total feet elevation gain

7 hours, including lunch stop and many, many photo ops

3 biozones: forest, sub-alpine and alpine

~5 marmots

3 piles of poop on the trail

4 creek crossings

2 snow crossings

.5 mountain views - it was in and out of fog all day, and never actually showed completely

Millions of flowers

Millions of colors of rocks

2 freezer bag lunches (theirs)

1 brie and cracker lunch (mine)

1 biffy ("bathroom in the forest for you")

12 200mg ibuprofen

Acres of watermelon snow

2 alpine lakes

And here is your "alpine porn", as L. calls it.

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Talus and scree across the valley on the way up:



More talus and scree:



First creek crossing, Fryingpan Creek:



First crossing, bridge is longer than this pic would indicate:



Upriver toward Tahoma:



Downriver - it's a canyon, but you can't tell from this picture:



Red columbine:



Lower meadow:



Lupine and Indian paintbrush:



Fryingpan Creek again, from the uphill side:



Group shelter:



From the group shelter, southwest into the gap:



Marmot!



And, of course, marmot butt:



Looking east, back down the valley:



Up into the gap:



Northwest, where it's rumored there's a big mountain:



Outcroppings in front of the rumored mountain:



Another try at seeing the mountain:



Hikergal pauses before the transition to true alpine:



L. hits the alpine porn:



Snowfield north of the gap:



Snowfield, south of the one above:



Yes, people hiked up with skis; check their tracks:



Wonder what this one is? Looks snapdragon-y:



Alpine lake at around 6500 feet:



Panhandle snow ridgeline:



A happy Elsa, wondering "will I be able to walk tomorrow?" (I was able, and so far, so good.):



Wildflowers on the way down, ahhh: