Mileage depends on when you give up on the rocky road around Meadow Mountain. Some do this as a snowshoe. I saw nowhere to camp on the route so not a backpack. I stayed to side of talus slopes - was steep but easier. Getting through woods is kind of best way you can, but try to follow a straight line to next set of talus. If you get to top of Talus, you'll hit a trail and just a few feet to the site from there. It's cool as it looks like they built talus up to put structure on it. I followed trail over to north summit - just a bit higher and could have been a spotting site per Eric Willhite. I followed trail down past first talus but unsure where it would end up so cut back to part going through woods. It was not as difficult going down as I thought it would be. I moved car up road a bit to a corner with view of Rainier and spent night there in car - smoky and really windy and cold, but what a view - great sunset and sunrise over Rainier.