Yet another Pilchuck work party, this time to scrape, prime and paint catwalk railings, shutters and shutter supports. Lisa and I joined Norm from the Everett Mountaineers. Plan was to hike in early Wed morning, work all day and stay overnight and for Lisa and me to hike out in early Thu morning.
The previous work party had already primed some of the supports and shutters. We lowered the east and west shutters and then scraped the railing, with the spontaneous and friendly help of another hiking couple.
I climbed to the roof to scrape and prime the E and W shutter supports while Lisa took on the catwalk railings and Norm climbed underneath the lookout to prime the support structure. Towards noon the sun came out and helped dry out the primer coats so that in the afternoon we could apply top coats for railing, shutter supports and shutters.
After dinner in the evening, we enjoyed a marvelous sunset across Puget Sound & Cascades and with 3 volcanoes in clear sight (Mt Baker, Glacier Peak and of course, Mt Rainier). We woke and rose to an almost as colorful sunrise at 5:30. Lisa and I descended after breakfast and I got back to office by ~11am, completing my longest commute (5hrs) to work.
The Everett Herald recently ran an article of this effort that plenty other volunteers and us 3 supported. Gratifying to see the appreciation of other visitors and hikers 
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- Priming the shutter support structure from above
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- Fun to paint down-under, can barely see what I paint :-)
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- At noon the sun burned away the clouds, great views all around, here west to Puget Sound
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- Lisa painting the west side shutters
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- Norm taking a break, after scrambling and painting along the lookout foundation
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- Lisa giving me directions :-)
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- The lookout’s resident chipmonk inspecting our work (and also curious what we have for dinner)
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- The fiery show begins: sunset over the Olympics
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- Me sungazing
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- Mt Baker in the misty remaining light
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- Looking back to the lookout during our descend the next morning
More pictures:
Stats:
| Distance: | 6mi / 9.6km roundtrip |
| Elevation gain: | 2224ft / 667m |
| High point: | 5324ft / 1597m |
| Hiking time: | 2:30 in up, 1:30 down |
| Weather: | initially cloudy, wonderful sunset |
Hikers:
Lisa, Norm, David
