My wife, our 13 year old daughter, and I will be hiking the Wonderland Trail this summer. Our permit is for 9 days, 27 July-3 August, starting clockwise from Fryingpan Trailhead. We'll be picking up food caches at Longmire and Mowich, and will hike the alternate route across Spray Park.
I hiked the full Wonderland about 10 years ago, and have hiked the Northern Loop several times since. In 2011 (a big snow year) I hiked a figure-eight joining the Northern Loop with a loop around Mother Mountain (also crossing Spray Park). That was the first week of August–based on conditions this year, I doubt we'll see as much snow as I did then.
This will be the longest backpack trip my wife and daughter have done, but both are enthusiastic. In fact, hiking the Wonderland was my wife's idea (esp. if she could do it with a light pack), and we were pretty excited to get the dates and camps we applied for. My wife did tear her ACL skiing this winter after we'd decided to go, but surgery in early spring went well, and her PT thinks she won't have any real problems with our planned mileage.
Our gears list are below, and also under my profile (if text is too hard to read). Most of this is pretty set–a few of the worn clothing items are estimated weights, or subject to change. I'll probably try and make a bivy or mesh inner for the tarp my daughter is using-I've managed with just a headnet, but it's not the most comfortable setup. We'll treat our clothes with permethrin, and hope that (plus a little DEET) will take care of the few buggy sections. We're NOT camping at Devil's Dream.
I'm still a little unsure if 2 canisters of fuel will be sufficient (FBC cooked dinners and morning coffee), hence the alcohol setup as well. Or if rain pants are completely necessary. Any comments are welcome.
