Wonderland Trail Day 3 - South Mowich River to Mystic Lake

August 25, 2014

Day 3 - the day I was dreading the most. After a good night's rest we work up dark and early in order to have plenty of daylight for our longest day of the trip.

A steady five mile climb up.. and just a little farther up lead us to the flat Mowich Lake Campground. This is a car camping campground so trash cans, toilets in a building, and pre-assigned spots to set up a tent (or for water to collect) are available here. We stopped at a picnic table so Andy could adjust my backpack by sewing the back frame down. It kept riding up all morning. We had a quick snack break and dried off our backs before we were on our way again.

You'll have to hike only a little farther down to reach the lake. The water was very clear and beautifully blue. Would really like to come back here one day with friends and take our kayak out. The sun was shining and the water looked so inviting, but we needed to get going.

Mowich Lake

Mowich Lake farther down the trail.

The trail is straightforward with little elevation gain/loss to Ipsut Pass. At the top of Ipsut Pass we just stood there for a minute realizing how high up we were and how glad we didn't have to climb UP this. The climb down is steep. The trail switchbacks and we had to take it slow because the path is all loose rock. There was a lot of knee-high vegetation and little to no shade. It was hot. Passed several couples going up the trail and felt really bad for them. Towards the bottom there are trickling streams to wet a handkerchief to keep your neck cool.

Top of Ipsut Pass

View going down the Pass

Huge rock wall to the left as you head down the Pass

Phew! We made it. Now, onward to Carbon River and the second suspension bridge... or so I thought...

Bummer. The west side of the trail was washed out so the detour takes you along the east bank of Carbon River until it meets up with the Wonderland Trail at the suspension bridge.

Detour to the east side

Forest

There's the bridge. Too bad there was no need to cross it this time.

The next leg of this day was shortly after passing the suspension bridge. This was the climb up to Dick Creek with Carbon Glacier by your side.

Carbon Glacier Danger

I really wanted my hardhat here. You're up against very vertical rock wall to your left and it's not very comforting hearing and seeing the rocks falling from the glacier to your right. At times there are rock ledges protruding above your head. We booked it though those areas just in case.

See what I mean?

Carbon Glacier

Ready for its close-up

There is a huge waterfall at Dick Creek. We had to rest here. Andy dunked his shirt in the cold water. I cooled down and had a snack. There was still more climbing to do past Dick Creek campground.

There was a peaceful section of the trail after all that climbing. A small stream, open forest and friendly rock piles and paths. It was easy and calm, but I was tired and hungry so it was not easy for me. Andy snapped a few pictures and we were on our way. Thank goodness for Andy, otherwise I would have no pictures for the blog!

Little stream next to the trail

Piles of rocks and a rock path. There's a chipmunk on one of the rocks.

The day was winding down and the sun was starting to set. This section of the hike was all meadow and fantastic views of Rainier.

We were both so sure that Mystic Lake was around the corner. Nope! One more climb up. At the base of that damn hill we ran into a couple who told us it would be about a 20 - 30 minute climb up. Ugh! I think this was the one point where I was feeling very sad/tired/hungry/discouraged. After silently telling myself to buck up, I slowly followed Andy up and took many a break. My legs were dead.

Looking down about halfway up the last climb. We were just down there in the meadow!

After that, the rest of the hike was back down, naturally. Still nice views of Rainier.

Just a little farther

We ran into a ranger on our way down to the lake. He asked to see our permit and we talked for a few minutes. Then, two bears! About 100' to our right was a momma bear and one of her cubs. We didn't end up seeing the second cub. The ranger at Longmire WIC told us about her, too. They were minding their own business and snacking on some blueberries. So darn cute. The three of us just stood there for 10 minutes or so watching them roam around.

Momma bear and one of two cubs munching on some blueberries

After that excitement we were so happy and energized to finish this day. At Mystic Lake we had to put our mosquito head nets on. Yikes. They were hungry. There was a couple having dinner at the lake and their skin was exposed. Don't know how they were doing that.. I was all like ?????

Mystic Lake was not so much mystic as it was mosquito infested

We had about 45 minutes of natural light left to find our campsite, set up camp, grab some water and prepare/eat dinner. Needless to say we ate dinner (chili mac) with our headlamps. The campsites were decent and flat even though it's slopes all around. Luckily we found a good site and water nearby down the hill. There's a three-walled toilet, too. After brushing our teeth we went to sleep and dreamed of burgers at Sunrise.

Total miles: 17 miles
Total time on trail (including breaks): 12 hours

Wonderland Trail Day 2 - Klapatche Park to South Mowich River

August 24, 2014

It was nice to start off the second day with a descent to North Puyallup River (on Day 5 I learned that I prefer going uphill. It's easier on the knees and once you've been climbing for so many miles it's actually not so rough. Imagine that!)

He is clearly a morning person

From what I can recall this day was pretty uneventful, but we did go through some interesting and different terrain.

North Puyallup

The Silver Forest

View from The Silver Forest

I enjoyed walking through The Silver Forest very much. It was my favorite part of the hike so far. It's an old burn area with young trees, wildflowers, blueberries and awesome views under a blazing sun.

We took a lunch break at Golden Lakes and seriously considered jumping in for a rinse. The ranger said it was "the warmest" of all the lakes. It was pretty cold to me. Andy and I decided not to. I have trouble staying warm as it is. Across the lake, however, a fellow hiker we met and chatted with the previous night was also enjoying lunch. Then, we heard a splash and an "ahhhh, woooo, uuuggggh!"
"Refreshing?" Andy shouted.
To which he responded, "NO!"

A trail behind and to the right of the cabin leads you down to the lake

Golden Lakes

On our way out of Golden Lakes, we ran into the fellow hiker not too far away. Apparently the cold water had gotten to him and he was trying to warm up on the side of the trail in the sunlight. Brrr!

Crossing over all these rocks to get across the Mowich River was a good change of pace. There were several log bridges, too. Remember to look up from watching your footing through the rocks to find your way across. There was some bright colored ribbon which helped us locate the bridges along the way.

Crossing the Mowich

The rain/thunder/hail started at this time, too. Luckily we were very close camp but decided to put on our rain gear. It was raining quite hard at times. I liked this campsite. It is tucked away in the forest just in front of the river and we made good use of the shelter during dinner time. The river water was too silty to filter, but there is a nice stream just a little farther down the trail. We had dinner with the fellow hiker guy. This was his second time hiking the Wonderland Trail in 8 days. He thought our hike the next day was going to be tough (it was) and it made me even more nervous! Andy had a good time talking to him about ultralight backpacking and he snapped a good picture of us ;)

Dinner under the shelter

Our campsite was mostly sheltered under the trees during the rain 

Total miles: 15 miles
Total time on trail (including breaks): 7.5 hours

Wonderland Trail Day 1 - Longmire TH to Klapatche Park

August 23, 2014

We spent Friday night at the National Park Inn at Longmire so we could get a good night's rest and an early start for our first day. Turned out to be a great idea. The room was cozy, very warm, and there are communal showers and toilets. While hot breakfast was good, I wouldn't recommend eating a breakfast of eggs, potato, and bread like we did unless you're used to it. I felt very tired and digest-y for the first part of the hike and it made even the slightest elevation gain difficult.

After stopping by the Longmire Wilderness Information Center and having a good laugh with the ranger we were on our way.

There are a couple roads you need to cross to continue on the trail, so watch for cars.

Washout near Kautz Creek

Indian Henry's Hunting Ground

Wow, what a beautiful area. We did not walk up to the cabin just 300' off the main trail. Still had a long day ahead of us.

One of the parts I was most excited about was the suspension bridge. I've never been on one. This first one took us above the canyon of Tahoma Creek. The sign (and I, too) would recommend only one person at a time.

Awesome suspension bridge. Tried looking back for a picture, but too scared!

What a cool construction. Also, I thought creeks were gentle, but this was roaring.

After the excitement of the suspension bridge, we continued on to Emerald Ridge. I remember walking slowly behind Andy. The sun was beating down on us, there was no shade and barely a breeze. It was hot and we were tired and hungry. But, you know that feeling that something amazing is just around the bend? 

Climb up to Emerald Ridge. Smile! It's beautiful here, too!

At the top of Emerald Ridge and just around the bend. 

It was windy up here. We stopped for lunch in the lush meadow with a view of Tahoma Glacier.

Day 1 Lunch - Delicious cheap parmesan, landjaeger, homemade protein granola bar

I think Andy brought his knife just for the cheese. Haha! Salty cheese was so incredibly satisfying. Should've brought two wedges.

We had to be careful and cautious of our steps on the decent down. There were some precarious areas where we noticed the trail had broken off the cliff side. The trail follows very closely to the cliff.

I remember reading that Aurora Lake at Klapatche Park was no good. When we came by the last lake before Aurora Lake we made sure to fill up on water and brought extra for the next morning. 

Yummy and cold lake water

Klapatche Park "campsite"

We made it to camp with about an hour of light left. It was a long day. Why do I have "campsite" in quotations captioned in the above picture? Well, let me tell you. All five of the campsites were taken! How could this be with the permit system? We went from site to site asking if each hiker had the right site and day on his or her permit. Well, the one lady with a small tent at the very last (and biggest) site didn't have a physical permit, but she said she "faxed in her application". (How did I know this was going to happen?) It was totally her. Everyone knew it. Andy found a little patch of sloped ground where we were able to set up camp. Whatever. We were tired. 

Aurora Lake in the morning. See the scum? Don't drink!

Total miles: 14.8 miles

Total time on trail (including breaks): 9 hours

Wonderland Trail - Preparation

Itinerary

In March, with Andy in New Zealand and my very limited research, I decided we would be able to do an average of 15 miles each day which meant a 6 day, 5 night trip.  This is what I came up with and what NPS confirmed:

Saturday, 8/23 - Longmire TH to Klaptache Park (14.8 miles)
Sunday, 8/24 - Klaptache Park to South Mowich River (15 miles)
Monday, 8/25 - South Mowich River to Mystic Lake (17 miles)
Tuesday, 8/26 - Mystic Lake to White River Campground (12.7 miles)
Wednesday, 8/27 - White River Campground to Nickel Creek (18.25 miles)
Thursday, 8/28 - Nickel Creek to Longmire TH (13.3 miles)

When I did start to research, that's when became excited and panicked all at once. Mainly - could we do it, would we have enough time and what if the weather sucked?  In my head I would think yes, we can/will do it. We're relatively active people. There would be at least 13-14 hours of daylight, slowpoke. Bring rain jacket and pants since you can't control the weather. Stop worrying. This will be a challenging and rewarding experience.

My three main resources during the planning process were:
1. The Wonderland Trail Guide Used to come up with an itinerary and read up on what to expect on each leg of our journey
2. Backpacking Chef For food planning, recipe ideas, tips and tricks.
3. Bette Filley's Discovering the Wonders of Wonderland Trail: Encircling Mount Rainier (May 1, 1998) Borrowed from the library. This was a highly recommended read by many of the blogs I visited. I enjoyed learning the abouts and history of Rainier and having a little more knowledge about the trail. I also wanted to have interesting things to tell Andy during the hike (hehe).

Food

With two weeks left before the trip I wanted to make sure there was enough time to prepare all our meals.Originally we were planning on having hot lunches and hot dinners but upon further review, decided it would be easier to have a quick, no-heat lunch so really I only had to prepare 5 dehydrated meals for our 6 day, 5 night trip. The 5th meal would be an extra in the event that we couldn't make it to Sunrise Visitor Center for a hot meal.

Menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with cream cheese powder and dehydrated blueberries and cherries
Lunch: Landjager + homemade granola bars or tortilla with peanut and almond butters
Snack: Beef jerky and trail mix (mixed nuts, dried berries, m&ms). We also brought two Cliff Bars each just in case.
Dinner:

1. Chili mac - Dehydrated homemade chili with pasta

2. Unstuffed peppers- Dehydrated rice, ground beef, tri color peppers, tomato sauce bark

3. Spaghetti with meat sauce and peas - Dehydrated broken spaghetti bits, ground beef, pasta sauce bark, peas

4. Mac and cheese w/ vegetables

5. Rice with meat and vegetables

I suppose I could have ventured beyond ground beef but it is simple to prepare and we didn't mind having the same protein for 4-5 dinners. I added panko to the beef before cooking so it rehydrated very well on the trail.

Five dinners yum yum

Each meal contained two servings (approximately two cups dehydrated food) packaged in two, quart-sized freezer bags. The double packaging served as protection in case the first baggie got punctured plus we would utilize the outer bag for preparing oatmeal in the morning. We prepared meals in the freezer bags + insulated sleeve over cooking in our pot out of convenience. Oatmeal gets so sticky and neither of use wanted to think about cleaning the pot after each meal and where to dispose of the wash water and food chunks. We didn't want to leave traces of food behind and would rather carry our trash out. In the end, we had about 1 pound of food each per day. We were surprised by this because typically people try to bring about 2 pounds of food per person per day. It ended up being just the right amount.

Semi dehydrated mixed vegetables. Peppers and rice to be dehydrated.

One tray of dehydrated peppers

Spaghetti with meat sauce. I added peas and extra sauce bark to the packaged meal. This was Andy's favorite. Good texture.

Spag sauce bark. woof.

Granola bars made with rolled oats, mini chocolate chips, chocolate protein powder, mixed dried berries, nut butter and honey. No flour. Recipe idea from Running with Spoons.

Packs

Andy made some modifications to our packs. He gave me a more substantial hip belt and both our hip belts and shoulder straps now had vented air holes.

New (left), Old (right)

Andy's (left), Mine (right)

In the end, our final pack weight with water were 28 pounds Andy and 26 pounds for me.

Contents of Andy's backpack. 

Overall I'd say we did a really good job with packing. For food, we had two Cliff Bars and about 1 cup of trail mix leftover and that was it. Next time I would bring an extra pair of hiking pants or shorts, but that's about it!