6.7 miles - 40.1 to go
Day of Many Things
Our climb from last night continued this morning with a 2,000 ft. ascent up to Spray Park. As we went, we encountered several false "summits" and at one point ended up on the wrong trail after crossing a large snow field. Luckily, a park ranger was able to correct our mistake and send us on our way. We've discovered that mosquitoes LOVE snow and we were swarmed all the way to the top. The tough climb and skeeters were worth the views of the mountain's northwest side and beautiful wild flowers.
Cami in a field of avalanche lillies - the first to bloom through the snow each spring
As each day passes, our feet are becoming more and more sore. We notice this most acutely on the downhill sections. Today's long downhill was broken up with a real treat. A short detour off the trail took us to Spray Falls, majestic and delightfully breezy. We were able to soak our feet (so great!).
Our hike concluded at Mowich Lake walk in camp. Because we had a short hike, there was plenty of time to take care of business such as picking up our food cache and taking a much needed bath in the lake. The water was so refreshing and we were able to wash our stinky clothes. Just as we were packing up to head back to camp, Cami slipped on her wet crocs and fell on her bum down a muddy hill dropping all of the clean clothes. Double argh!Camp itself is a bizarre set up of raised sandbox beds and picnic tables each with only 6 feet of space. Needless to say, our time was spent socialing with our neighbors, a group of 6 from the Bay area and a single woman also from CA. The social gathering prompted an insect gathering the likes of which we had never seen. We encountered a mystery bug which we've decided to name, "poke-you-in-the-eye" bug.
The socializing was a great change of pace, but in the end we walked away feeling glad that we aren't from CA! The perfect ending to our day was spotting a beautiful deer heading through our camp just as we turned in for the night.
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Day 7 - Mowich Lake to Golden Lakes
10 mi. - 30.1 to go
Day of Flat Switchbacks
This morning we were rudely awakened by our CA neighbors (typical). We took down our camp at record speed and set off on the trail. Down, down, down to the bottom of a deep valley. All of a sudden, Dave says, "OH NO! We forgot to meet the Chamberlains back at camp!" We were in such a hurry to escape the bugs at camp that we completely forgot to wait for Dr. and Mrs. Chamberlain (Dave's chem prof from undergrad) who were starting the trail today. Bummer.
While on the valley floor, we found a stand of blueberries and enjoyed a sour treat
On the way back up the other side of the valley, we were dismayed to find a very poor section of trail. Up until now, the wonderland trail has been consistently steep. Now the trail was SO flat and only gained elevation at the switchbacks... a very slow way to climb a mountain. We ran out of water part way up the trail and were sweating buckets by the time we reached the top.
We arrived at camp at 2:40pm and spent our afternoon in our tent to avoid the BUGS and the skinny dippers in the lake. :) Cami spent a lot of time over-analyzing the "bear" situation for no reason. Dave was gracious to help calm her fears.
Our view from camp was of the woods and we couldn't figure out why people recommended this camp sight so highly. A little jaunt around the lake told us why. Beautiful mountain views!
***********************************************Day 8 - Golden Lakes to Klapatche Park
7.6 mi - 22.5 to go
Day of the BEST camp
This morning, because of the awful bugs, we decided to skip our hot breakfast and hit the trail early. The mosquitoes swarmed all the way on our ascent out of camp. Relief came at the perfect time just as the mountain came into view. Our stop for lunch included our hot oatmeal from breakfast. Black flies swarmed us but we have become ultimate ninja fly murderers!
After filling up with miracle juice, we made a "miraculous" ascent up to our very favorite camp!
View on the way to camp - thick lupine fields
We arrived at 2:30pm and had our choice of campsites. The first site (#1) has a direct view of the mountain in all its glory. Cami spent the day reading and staring at the mountain from the inside of the bug free sanctuary also known as the tent. Dave puttered around camp and attempted to fix the electric fly swatter.
Evening brought one other friendly couple to camp. She is a wonderland veteran five times over!
*********************************************Day 9 - Klapatche Park to Devil's Dream
10.5 mi - 11 to go
Day of the Mosquito
We woke up to an awesome view of the mountain from our tent. We took our time packing up camp because of our desire to arrive at our next destination as late as possible. Our hike up and out of camp was very buggy, a foreshadowing of things to come.
We had a big downhill section to South Puyallup camp where we checked out the bathroom thanks to a tip from fellow Wonderlanders. Old lava flow had crystallized into tall columns in the shape of honeycomb. Definitely worth the stop.
Speaking of Puyallup, we've learned the easy way to tell if hikers are local is to wait until the word, "Puyallup" comes up in the conversation. We've heard some hilarious pronunciations. poo-yu-LUP.
A super spider souvenir I picked up!
Our next climb was loaded with biting black flies but was made better because of the view. We hiked directly toward the Tahoma Glacier with fantastic views the whole way. Eventually when we got to the top, a great wind (our first of the trip) cancelled any bugs wish of eating us. Delightful! We sat at the top for over an hour, just wasting time.
Next was a long hike down to the high suspension bridge and the hike back up to Indian Henry's Hunting Ground.
Part way up the climb, we stopped at a stream for an early dinner. Southwest potatoes and Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce....delicious! Typically we arrive at camp around 2:30 so hiking in the evening felt bizarre. All of this in preparation for the eventual piling on of clothes. If we hiked during the day, it would be too hot to bare this extra layers. By the time we reached the top, we were wearing two pairs of pants, a long sleeve shirt, rain jacket, and mosquito nets. Incredible view from Indian Henrys. If you zoom in, you can see clouds of mosquitoes blurring the picture.
At any given moment we had 100-200 mosquitoes each swarming our whole bodies. This video absolutely cracks me up. It looks like I've lost my mind!!!!The mosquitoes were so bad that we debated hiking on to Pyramid Creek in the dark. In the end, we decided to stick it out at Devil's Dream. Our 9 days of experience and careful planing made set up a breeze. After killing the 30 hopeful tent partners, we were set for the night. What a day!
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Day 10 - Devil's Dream to Paradise River
9.8 mi - 2.2 to go
Day of Social Interactions
We woke up early in preparation to hike double-clothed until the mosquitoes relented. After a mile and a half, we found a great stream to get water and breakfast. We continued a leisurely downhill hike dotted with snacks, a spot of uphill, and tons of conversations with passing hikers. Many hikers were on day two and wanted advice from those that had been around the mountain. Before Longmire, we met several couples we had seen on the other side of the mountain.
We sang, "steppy time" from Mary Poppins when we encountered sections like this
At long last we made it to Longmire and hastily made ourselves...um, more "presentable". We then sat down for a Mushroom Swiss Burger and a Bacon Cheddar Burger. Yum!! While letting our food digest, we sat on the porch, browsed through the gift shop, and found lots of people to chat with, many who thought we were nuts for hiking the whole trail. :)
After such a relaxing and stomach filling time, we were somewhat reluctant to begin again, but we quickly stepped back into our hiking groove which has reached expert levels by now. As we set out, we soon ran into 3 of the 6 Californians we met at Mowich Lake. Three of them had stopped because of blisters.
Our camp was very secluded as nearly bug free so we were able to eat outside of our tent. We treated ourselves to another Raspberry Crumble with a pot of decaf. What a treat! Camp is very quiet and is a wonderful place to end our trip. We spotted a deer at camp, bringing the count to 4.
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Day 11 - Paradise River to Paradise
2.2 mi - FINISHED!
Day of Paradise
This morning we were super laid back and just rested in the tent for over an hour before packing up and hitting the trail for the last time. We saw Narada Falls and some beautiful creeks and bridges on our short uphill climb. By 9:50 am we had taken our last step up to the pavement, ending our long and wonderful journey.
We were able to take glorious, well-deserved, and badly needed showers in the Inn's shared showers before we were able to check into our room. Once checked in, we cooked our potatoes on our jet boil, ate molasses cookies and dried apples before settling in for some board games and hot tea on the mezzanine. Dinner = totallly spoiled in luxury and breakfast the next day = even better!
Dave's parents honeymooned here and have taken their family back every year for a picture in this spot. Now our family begins the tradition!
Best video ever!! Dave is pushing the button to light up the Wonderland and whispers a quote from Lord of the Rings while a few onlookers get scared and take off! Classic.
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