Camp Muir Hike, July 2023

For my 63rd birthday, I did my annual birthday hike up Camp Muir on July 12th. Craig Schilling and Chloe Wei celebrated my day with me.

Freeman Pose
Craig Schilling & Rick Freeman Heading Up
Local Mountain Goat
Chloe Wei & Craig Schilling
Freeman On Muir Snowfield

Freeman & Wei on Camp Muir

Hood River Trip, May 2023

A group of us (Rick & Linna Freeman, Craig Schilling & Tao Song & Emelie & Eric Espling) rented a house near Hood River, Oregon for some local hiking and some big in-house gourmet meals together.

Yellow Daisies Everywhere
Craig Schilling & Emelie Espling
Mount Hood From Our Airbnb
Freeman & Linna
White Salmon

Maple Pass Hike, October 2022

Five other couples joined Linna and I for a beautiful fall weekend in the Winthrop, Washington area for a three day weekend filled with food, friendship and fun.

All of us hiked up Maple Pass on Saturday and spent most of our time taking pictures of the fall colors.

We Got To The Maple Pass Parking Lot About 7:30 a.m. And All The Parking Spots Were Full So We Parked Along Highway Like Everybody Else.

Overlooking Lake Ann
Maple Pass Hike Offers Up Beautiful Fall Colors During October. The Hillsides Are Filled With Penstemon, Indian Paintbrush, Monkeyflower And Sitka Valerian flowers.
The Women Of Our Group
About 1.25 miles In You Can Hike Down To The Beautiful Lake Ann
The Larches Were Just Turning Into Their Bright Yellow Fall Colors
After A Day Of Hiking In The Sun With Elevation, I Joined The Chinese Women With A Soothing Facial Moisturizer
We Had A Wonderful Dinner After Our Lovely Hike That Was Handmade By Our Beautiful Chinese Women
Craig Schilling & Freeman Yoga Hiking

Camp Muir Birthday Hike, July 2022

It’s becoming a tradition on my birthday to hike up Camp Muir on Mount Rainier if I am not flying somewhere to celebrate.

Camp Muir, 10,100 Feet Elevation
Ione and Jim Darmiento
Chloe Wei Memorized By The Scenery
Freeman On The Slide
Tao Song & Chloe Wei At Camp Muir
Local Marmot
Resting At Camp Muir
Rick Freeman & Chloe Wei At Camp Muir

Camp Muir Hike, July 2021

For my 61st birthday I decided to hike up Camp Muir. It was also a way to test out my new right knee replacement that happened on March 1st.

I asked a bunch of people to celebrate my birthday hike with me, but only Tao Song, Craig Schilling and Mike Curry took the challenge. We arrived at Paradise parking lot around 6:30 a.m. with only about twenty cars in the parking lot. We started up the trail around 6:45 a.m. and stopped after we crossed Icicle Creek…pretty much where the snow started. We had a snack and put on our traction devices before trudging on.

Tao lead the way to Camp Muir making sure she maintained a lead of 100 yards from of us tired boys. I have done this hike about 10 times now and it never gets easier. We all know what the last mile feels like…pure hell. At least we had beautiful clear sky and a warm sun beating down on us, no jacket required on top…just a dry shirt.

On the way down we made sure to hit every snow shoot there was. I brought a heavy duty garbage bag and it worked well for glissading. After descending and a change of clothes we stopped in Ashford for pizza and beer.

My support group: Tao Song, Craig Schilling, Rick Freeman and Michael Curry
Freeman on the death march up to Camp Muir.
Resting At Camp Muir
Tao Song Glissading
Craig Schilling & Tao Song

Rick Freeman & Mike Curry Glissading

Enchantment Thru Hike, August 2017

Enchantment Thru Hike
Date: August 19, 2017
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 20 miles / 32 Kilometers round-trip
Elevation Gain: 5,200 feet / 1,585 meters (total gain)
Time: 12 to 15 hours
Location: Near Leavenworth, Washington
Users Group: Hikers &
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Matt Kerby, Tao Song & Craig Schilling


I trekked this brutal 20 mile loop last year, so I have a full understanding of the physical requirements and mental determination to complete it. So…to do again this year makes me a glutton for punishment. Team Punishment consisted of my lovely wife Linna, Matt Kerby, Craig Schilling and Tao Song.

We dropped off Matt’s vehicle at the Snow Lakes trailhead and the five of us drove Craig’s vehicle to Colchuck trailhead where we started our torturous journey at 5:00 a.m. I was totally surprised how both parking lots were completely full. Of course we didn’t see much in the dark, but by the time we got to Colchuck Lake it was all blue skies. We stopped at the first big slab of granite opening which was directly across the famous Aasgard Pass for the initial bombardment of photos and selfies. We also took this time to scarf down some energy food before heading up to the pass which was nearly ½ mile away around the lake. You start to notice the cairns around the lake and soon you realize how important they are and become later in the hike. Somehow Tao didn’t pay attention to the cairns and found herself lost for about 15 minutes before we started up the pass.

What can I say about Aasgard Pass that you don’t already know…2,000 feet elevation gain in 0.75 miles is cruel and unusual punishment to your mind, body and soul. I am sure I was having Mailbox Peak flashbacks. Some sections you need to be careful you don’t dislodge rocks…especially when your wife is below you! We took a long break at the summit in a low spot on large boulders to stretch out our tired legs. During lunch, Matt had a photo shoot with us and a few goats. Matt Kerby is a professional photographer so you will see a lot of his photos on my blog.

The trail continues through the Enchantment basin / Upper Enchantments with numerous lakes and photo opportunities everywhere. We stopped and soaked our feet in the icy cold Leprechaun Lake before heading down to the Snow Lakes. Once you see the lakes at a distance, you realize that you still have a brutal descent down. For me, this is the most grueling section…but once you get down to the upper Snow Lakes it’s back on a half-way normal trail. Once you see the parking lot, you might think you only have 15 minutes left, but it’s a full hour yet.

Mailbox Peak Sunrise Hike, July 2017

Mailbox Peak
Date: July 30, 2017
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 5.3 miles / 8.4 Kilometers round-trip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet / 1,219 meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Matt Kerby, Craig Schilling and my Wonderdog Macho


My third trip to the famous Mailbox Peak and my fourth sunrise hike this year. Linna and I woke up at 1:15 a.m. this morning to meet Matt Kerby and Craig Schilling at the Mailbox Peak lower parking lot at 2:45 a.m. and started hiking the old trail at 3:04 a.m.

If you think it’s tough staying on the trail during the day, it’s worse in middle of night. Craig got a little behind in the group and found himself off-trail so he started hiking straight up to our lights that was illuminating from our headlamps. The white diamonds sporadically located in the trees came in useful…they would shine like stars once your headlamp hit them.

We made it up in 2 1/2 hours and even had to wait for the sun to show it’s face. We had the summit, sunrise and the mailbox to ourselves until we had our fill. We headed back the same way as we came up…old trail baby. I have descended the new longer trail and it just feels forever and I rather get the pain over with on the shorter steep old trail.