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:
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.
In the end, our final pack weight with water were 28 pounds Andy and 26 pounds for me.
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!
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.
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| 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.
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| Semi dehydrated mixed vegetables. Peppers and rice to be dehydrated. |
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| One tray of dehydrated peppers |
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Spaghetti with meat sauce. I added peas and extra sauce bark to the packaged meal. This was Andy's favorite. Good texture. |
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| 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. |
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.
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| New (left), Old (right) |
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| Andy's (left), Mine (right) |
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| Contents of Andy's backpack. |