Despite my whimsical post about how my trip to Washington started, this is literally the first picture of my trip. After driving through rain from Portland to Mount Rainier, I had a couple of hours before sunset so I stopped in the Sunrise area of the park to hike a bit on the Sourdough Ridge Trail. I donned all of my wet weather gear and wrapped my camera and lenses in plastic bags before putting them in my camera bag.
As I climbed up the trail the wind picked up and as I got further along the trail towards Frozen Lake, the rain turned to snow that bit me hard in the face. Despite the nasty weather my spirits were high when I spotted an unusual rock at the side of the trail. A second look turned the rock into a hoary marmot that was standing on its hind legs, my first look at this species and posing in what would have made a beautiful picture.
Would have made a beautiful picture, but since my cameras were safe and dry inside my camera bag, I couldn’t take its picture. I decided to risk the weather and got the camera out and attached the lens, but by this time the marmot had stopped posing and was walking to a different part of the talus field. It did stop for a moment before disappearing under the rocks, so I was able to get this picture (and a few others zoomed in a bit more, but I like how this picture shows the driving rain).
I decided then and there to risk having the camera out in the rain, I covered it with a plastic bag as best I could and tried to keep it as dry. It was my first few hours into a 9 day trip and a bit of a risk, but I felt it was worth it after having missed what would have been one of my favorite pictures of the year.
It turned out to be the right decision, I saw four grouse (including this one) on the way back down the trail. I had to shoot in the rain off and on during the trip but kept the same philosophy, being careful but not careless, and I was fortunate not to have any cameras die on me. My 100-400mm lens is showing some problems and may have to be sent in for repairs, but not because of the rain.
Canon’s newer mid-range cameras have more gaskets on them than mine do, but they still don’t put them as many places as they should. Gaskets and o-rings can crack and shrink and leak over time, so you can’t completely rely on them to keep water out of your camera, but when you’re out on the trail and out in the rain, you’ll take every bit of help you can get.




