Wonderland Trail Day 6 - Nickel Creek to Longmire

August 28, 2014

We made it to our last day! I woke up excited to start the day early so we could get to Longmire to clean up, snack on the sour candies and chips stashed in my car and head home. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this experience every step of the way, but I was also looking forward to going home.

Other than really awful stomach cramps (too much oatmeal?) this last day wasn't too spectacular. We did run in to a couple who recognized us.... well, my bright backpack.. from a few days back. They were halfway done with the Wonderland Trail.

Deep crevasse

We took a quick snack break at Reflection Lake. It was peaceful here with just a couple parked cars at the lot. It was a nice day, too, but lingering clouds obstructed the views of Mt. Rainier and I'm guessing its reflection in the lake.

A few minutes earlier I noticed a bee land on my left arm. Careful not to make any sudden movements, it stung me anyways and flew away. What the heck?! What a JERK bee! It was on my arm for all of 5 seconds just to sting me? I've never been stung before. There was a tingling stinging sensation in my arm for 15 minutes and it barely got swollen. Andy just laughed and told me he used to get stung all the time. Well good for you, but this isn't helping the pain :P I sulked while I ate my Cliff Bar and Andy dried out our tent.

First bee sting. Jerk bee.

And finally:

 :D   WE DID IT   :D

Five days and five nights on the trail is hard. This was one of the most challenging things I've ever done. We've spent five days hiking before, but that was several years ago in the Olympics and I think we covered about 20 miles. I'm so proud of us and still am. Can't wait for our next long adventure. We're thinking some PCT section hikes.

Total miles: 13.3 miles
Total time on trail (including breaks): 7.5 hours

Wonderland Trail Day 5 - White River Campground to Nickel Creek

August 27, 2014

Day 5 was the BIG one - lots of mileage, but also lots to see.

Once I struggled into my damp clothes and got the other garments hanging nicely on our packs (socks and all), we were on our way to a rough but terrific day. Andy and I were probably chatting about food from the day before when suddenly something black emerged behind a log and walked across the trail about 20 yards ahead before continuing on.

Bear first thing in the morning just a couple minutes outside of White River Campground

Yay! Another bear sighting :) It didn't care about us and kept on its hunt for berries. We kept talking to make sure it knew we were there and to avoid any surprises. Well, that was an exciting start to the morning.

Signage

I was super excited for Summerland. Summerland, Summerland, Summerland is all anyone talks about when you bring up Rainier. Well, not really but it sure is popular. The chipmunks definitely get fed here. They're not even scared of people. They were kind of annoying.

Summerland

One bold chipmunk. Then came five more. They sure are friendly.

Om nom nom

Huffing and puffing on leg day

There were so many marmots here. And a lot of clueless day hikers, too. I'm not being mean, but there are literally signs everywhere saying to stay off the sensitive areas and big sticks/log blocking off small boot paths. People walk on them anyways. It hurt to see this.

We continued on from Summerland to Panhandle Gap and the area above Ohanapecosh Park. This section was so beautiful if I write any more I'll just repeat myself saying how beautiful it was. The hike was strenuous and again, there was little to no shade for relief from the sun.

Rock and water. Also sky and clouds.

ME!

Gorgeous

Very cool shards of rock

If we had time we would have loved to climb up. Those ladies encouraged us to, but didn't understand our demanding timeline that day so we continued towards the left.

Much needed lunch break before making our way up then down to Indian Bar

Indian Bar

BE SURE to fill up on water here before continuing

Looking back towards Indian Bar

"We were all the way up there then hiked all the way down there and now we're all the way up here!"

Beginning to worry if we'll make it to camp before the sun sets.

Made it, but had to set up and grab water a half mile down in the dark.

We made it to Nickel Creek with a drop of water and 10 minutes of sunlight left. It's a pretty crappy camping area tucked in the forest about a half mile up from the creek. I think I remember reading the campsite had to be moved due to all the mice or rats or something. Anyways, we didn't care about the lame location (I did for a second but didn't say anything since I planned the trip heh..). We had a tough day and were hungry and thirsty. After setting our stuff down we booked it down to the creek with our headlamps to gather some water for dinner and drinking. Bear poles were available and the toilet was the typical wood box with no walls although this one wasn't very sturdy so careful jumping off!

Total miles: 18.25 miles
Total time on trail (including breaks): 12 hours

Wonderland Trail Day 4 - Mystic Lake to White River Campground

August 26, 2014

Hallelujah! Day 4 had finally arrived. My love of food is strong. Even in the early stages of planning our trip I knew I was going to make it a point to visit Sunrise Visitor Center. I was sure a burger after three days on the trail would taste like unicorns and rainbows. Also, bonus because it was going to be a short day (12.7 miles) so we could take our sweet time.

I remember the hike from Granite Creek to the Skyscraper Mountain area very well. Can you just imagine being all hot and sweaty in your four day old sweaty and sticky clothes, knowing that the promise of a burger and facilities to wash your clothes are just a few miles away on your "easy day"?

I especially enjoyed hiking through the moraines. Very cool landscape.

Glacier

Typical stroll through the forest then...

Bam! Rainier!

After wiping the stinging sweat from my eyes the views continued. Our cameras can not do this place justice.

View before heading down the last leg towards Sunrise

Going down

No shade to be found.

Water! Good place to wet a piece of cloth to drape around your neck to keep cool.

A sunbathing marmot ~ 50 yards off the trail.

Signage to Sunrise

At this point we began to see hoards of day hikers. I think they were confused as to why Andy and I were fully clothed. Oh, what I would have given up to be in shorts and a tank. A burger? Nah!

The last mile stretch on the wide gravel road to the visitor center felt like an eternity. We didn't take any pictures other than the one below. The lady taking our order wasn't friendly, but gave us a smile when we were in line a second time to order more food. What did we order? One burger + bag of chips, one beef hot dog + bag of chips, one giant cookie, one soda, and one soft serve ice cream EACH. Hahaha. Are you proud or disgusted? I ate it all and was very satisfied. Andy and I decided we'd both order a burger to-go since 1.) it was delicious and 2.) we had (barely) enough room to fit it in our bear kegs with the bags of chips, of course.

Hot and fresh lunch on Day 4 @ Sunrise Visitor Center

Next item of the day was to take care of was laundry. After checking out the public restrooms we decided the regular size sinks were not adequate to wash our clothes. Also, it was busy in there and I suspected we would have received dirty looks from taking up one of the two sinks. Andy asked one of the park museum rangers and she informed us that White River had large size sinks where we could wash up. Sweeeeeet. We fast-hiked down to White River Campground to allow ourselves plenty of time to wash our clothes.

White River Campground is a large car camping campground with a small area in the corner for ~6 tents for hikers. I imagine some hikers would not like this, but I enjoyed the change of pace and seeing other people around. There were no other hikers camping around us so we got the area all to ourselves.

We camped just behind (to the right of) this theater area and look! A deer!

And a brave birdie.

The facilities were across the theater  and included men and women's restrooms, an outdoor water faucet to fill buckets of water (also where we washed our clothes), and a dish washing area. The dish washing "sink" looked like a big toilet and flushed like one, too. Andy and I washed all our clothes and hung them on the benches pictured above. We had a bit of sunlight left, but our clothes didn't dry in time. We hung a rope in our campsite to hang our clothes at the end of the day, had dinner, and went to sleep.

The next morning we hung the remaining damp clothes on the back of our packs so they could air dry during Day 5. Putting wet clothes on in the morning is such a gross feeling.

Total miles: 12.7 miles
Total time on trail (including breaks): 7.66 hours