August 2017 Wonderland Trail trip: Gear list help …

[Bud]

I’m not ultralight at all as anyone can tell; I definitely have some gear that could be lighter, but of which I bought before I knew any better; thus, for the time being I am not going to replace such items any time soon (unfortunately). In a perfect world, I’d have a lighter water filter (wife doesn’t think the quickness and ease of use of the gravity filter should be a reason to ditch it for a Sawyer Squeeze), a lighter tent option (my wife hates the idea of being cramped or sleeping separately in bivy sacks and under a tarp), and would have no need to carry around Epi Pens (bee venom allergy).

Regardless, what changes should I consider for a Wonderland Trail hike in August? Any help would be greatly appreciated. My biggest question is whether my sleeping base layers will be warm enough, if I should get some EE synthetic booties instead of sleeping socks, and whether or not I should bring a fleece in addition to (or instead of) my Nano jacket.

Thanks!

[Bud]

I should point out that I am new to quilts and my sleep system questions stem from having no experience with quilts. I did order a wide quilt though to help keep my body properly covered while sleeping (I’m a side sleeper). I will definitely practice in before committing to the trail. I figure if I’m too cold, I can always throw on my Nano Air. Wouldn’t sleeping in the Nano Air be a bit pointless though since I’d be rolling around and compressing the insulation?

Thanks!

[David Thomas]

Clothing or a sleeping bag that compresses under your weight doesn’t help much under you.  It does reduce heat loss to the sides and top, so there is a point.  As you do some trial runs, you’ll learn, just by feel, if you are losing excessive heat through the sleeping pad, compared to the clothing/quilt.  If so, then you need a higher R-value pad or a 1/8″ CCF under the pad, at least under your core.

At least on my browser/screen, those images are barely readable.  Makes it hard for me to delve into the details.

Rather than sleep-specific booties, I’d be lean towards fluffy wool socks.  Then they can more easily multi-pupose as mittens if your hands are cold and, well, as extra socks.

The biggest thing I’d track in advance and have gear to respond to, is how are the mosquitos going to be this August?  You’ll get indications come Spring and better info through the Summer if you follow people’s trip reports.  A bad year can have 20 times more bugs than a good year.  That can (should) really dictate your clothing, head-net, and shelter choices and how much DEET you bring.

[Bud]

Thanks for the tips and advice. I’m going to work on getting my gear list imported somewhere else for easier viewing as well.

I may be looking an X-Therm to replace my XLite. That’s good advice!

[Bud]

HERE’S A LINK TO MY GEAR LIST: https://lighterpack.com/r/6bt31j

[John Rowan]

I did the Wonderland in 2013, also in August.

First thing I’d note is that there don’t seem to be any cooking/food items on here, which I’m guessing was just forgotten (or maybe is being carried in the other pack).

Second, I’m not a huge fan of umbrellas. I’ve just never felt like the coverage was that effective in a bad storm. Plenty of people love them and don’t die.

As far as sleeping stuff goes, I did that hike with a WM Summerlite (which is theoretically rated to 32*, which I don’t buy since it’s a mummy bag with only 9oz of fill), and a Thermarest Prolite Plus (R 3.4), so the general temp specs of what I took were somewhat similar to your kit, albeit coming from different items. I was fine in the Summerlite, but chilly most nights. The nights were probably pretty consistently in the low 40s for me (I found the WT very hard to get beta on for what to expect for nighttime temps compared to, say, the JMT, so your experience may vary.)

Considering that I’d probably expect the EE to be a more realistic temp rating than the Summerlite I used, I’d say that I’d probably have been fine for the temps I encountered on my trip. I was plenty warm on the Prolite Plus pad, so I’d assume that, at R3.2, you’d also be fine. I tend to be a very cold sleeper (awful leg circulation) until I get myself on longer trips and can get the metabolism cranking a bit more.

Finally, as far as the tent goes, I certainly wouldn’t be worrying about the weight. That said, if things start to get damp, I’d recommend being very careful with how you pack it up in the morning. I found the sandy volcanic soil do an amazing job at collecting on my damp tent, and it went from being dirty to being a problem in the span of a few days. (My experience with this was one of the things that turned me off of the single-piece tent designs.) You’ll be hiking with a partner, so you’ll have an easier time with this, but I’ve never had a shelter pick up so much crap on it as I did on the WT.

The Wonderland hike is really fantastic- you’ll be in for a treat.

[Bud]

John: Thanks for taking the time to respond with such good advice, anecdotes, and tips. You’re right: my wife is carrying the fuel, stove, and cup for heating water. We’re going to share a spork. It’s just a bit lighter and I honestly don’t love most cooked hiking food options. Actually, the only food I can tolerate that’s cooked is the Shepherd’s Pie meal that Mary Jane’s Outpost makes.

I’m highly considering getting an X-Therm to give myself some extra cushion in the warmth department. I definitely don’t want to sleep cold on the trail, that’s for sure.

May I ask how many days and nights you took to complete the trail? We’re aiming for 4 nights and five days.

[John Rowan]

The Wonderland was my first-ever “long” hike (and actually only even my second multi-night trip), so I think I did something like seven nights, but found that pace to be way, way, way too slow for me. (I managed about a thousand pages of reading thanks to constantly hitting my next assigned campsite at like 1 or so even taking it easy and sleeping in.)

I’ve actually been putting a lot of thought into how many nights I’d do if I were doing it again, since I’ve gotten about 2,000 or so more miles under my feet since then and am just a teensy bit more confident in the ol’ legs, and I’m honestly not sure how I’d pace it, but probably a similar five-day itinerary. The up/down of the trail is significant enough that something along those lines lets you stretch out your legs a bit without having the elevation gain be insane for a given day. Not like you can change campsites on the fly anyway, but on the WT, the decision to hike on for an extra three miles often means another 2-3K feet of climbing (much more so than a lot of other similarly popular trails).

Also, if you’re playing around with the planning I’d check this link out if you haven’t seen it before: https://www.wonderlandguides.com/hikes/wonderland-trail/itinerary-planner. The automatically-generated itinerary for 5 days breaks up some of the tougher sections nicely, but some of its default campsites aren’t necessarily the cream of the crop.

Finally, just for the hell of it, here’s a Flickr album from the trip, since I was actually going through the pics before I saw this thread: https://flic.kr/s/aHsjHUc4F7

[jscott]

We’re aiming for 4 nights and five days.

Why rush? There’s a lot of elevation gain and loss. It’s not an’easy’ hike for sure. But you will remember it forever. I’d personally take an extra day at least.

[Katherine .]

First of all: Training is probably way more important than your gear. Five days? Are you and your wife like super-duper in shape? With the fixed itineraries you don’t want to overcommit. I did 19 mile days fine in the Oregon Cascades, but an 18+ day on Rainier killed my knee when I was only 3/4 of the way around. It’s lovely. If you can take the time, take it. If you can’t consider the northern or eastern loops.

Rain gear: no rain shell, just the houdini and an umbrella? I’d want a real rain shell, a houndini and umbrella would have left me pretty miserable in the windy rain over panhandle gap. (though I was envying the umbrella carriers I passed on the south side). I forget – did you list rain mitts? I was wishing I had…

Sleep: I slept in a 20 degree Revelation + Xlite + hooded puffy anorak. I sleep cold in general and was totally fine on that count.

Shelter: I had a cuben mid. I was wishing I had a Duplex for more head room and better ventilation. Those Plex bathtub floors will serve you well when the last site available at your assigned campground is a big puddle. I don’t remember the volcanic stuff the other poster experienced. You could address that with a polycro ground sheet.

One Spork to share? c’mon add a cheap plastic spoon so you can eat together.

I’d say Rainier is all about the training for the EG/L and being able to deal with the wet.

Also: Do the Spray Park alt.

 

 

[Bud]

Thanks for the tips and links, John!

Katherine: I appreciate the tips as well! I do have rain mitts. I figure the umbrella should properly cover my top, while maybe investing in a rain kilt could cover my bottom. You do make a compelling argument though for a proper rain top in terms of overall warmth.

[Bud]

We figure we could do the Wonderland Trail on a 5-day journey with proper training (we’ve begun our training and will continue it after tomorrow’s blizzard hits) at local hikes (Blue Hills) and the Whites (we live in Massachusetts, which is quite near the White Mountains).

We like to hike slowly to minimize injuries and conserve energy. We’re aiming for an extremely slow 1.5 mile per hour pace. That’s total pace that we force ourselves to go. The idea? Go slow, enjoy the scenery, don’t force any injuries, and relax. Second, we like to force a required twenty-minute stop-eat-and-snap-pictures break every hour. For many, our pace and break-style might seem like too much, but it works for us. Slow and steady wins the race.

We pretty much don’t love camp-time and prefer being on the trail, which is another reason for our hiking style. With the Wonderland Trail camps, we’re hoping to secure stays of (starting at Longmire) N. Puyallup (19.5 mi.) on day one, Ipsut Creek (20.5 mi.) on day two, Sunrise Camp (16.7 mi.) on day three, and Indian Bar (14.3 mi.) on day four, with day five getting back to Longmire (20.3 mi.).

At a minimum of 1.5 miles per hour (and really, we try to keep this as a stick-to-it maximum speed) and hiking 13 hours per day (with 12 breaks of twenty minutes), we should be able to cover 19.5 miles per day. We’re giving ourselves one hour to pack, use restrooms, stretch, and eat breakfast every morning (5-6 am), hit the trail by 6 am, and be done every day by 7 pm. 7 – 8:30 pm is for filling waters, setting up camp, cooking and eating, and getting ready for bed. 8:30 – 9:00 is for journaling and reading to get our eyes and minds ready to sleep by 9:00 pm, which in turn should secure us with 8 hours of sleep per night.

If need be, we bump up our pace to 1.6 or 1.7 miles per hour for days that our destinations are longer than 19.5 miles away!

[Jeffs Eleven]

Dont forget your watch!

[Katherine .]

glad that was useful.

“Ipsut Creek (20.5 mi.) on day two,”

But, but Spray Park! You want to do Spray Park. Spend a night at Eagle’s Nest if you can get the mileage to work for you.

[Katherine .]

And this is all assuming you get exactly what you want for your permit request, of course. Or were you thinking walk up?

I haven’t seen what the parameters are in the new systems, but from my walk-up experience last year: being flexible helped me get an itinerary. And my weird short days that I had to take to make it work went by really quickly!  Also, there are a few campsites not technically on the Wonderland that are nearby and still pleasant or at least convenient, e.g. Glacier Basin. They are Not on that wonderland guides trip planner app, but they are on the map on the MRNP backcountry trip planning map.

(me? I’m hoping to take my EG-loving seven-year-old up to Summerland for her first backcountry overnight)

[Bud]

I really want to take the Spray Park route, but for intents and purpose, we are opting to take that route as an alternate day hike before or after the trip. After consuming literature about the trail, it seems like the original Wonderland Trail (aside from washed out sections) is not supposed to include the Spray Park alternate route. Hence, in the effort of keeping things as original as possible …. :)

I know, I know … stupid reasoning, right!

[Bud]

Katherine: We’re teachers, which means we both have summers off. We are going to put in our trips starting in two days (although, with the lottery, it really doesn’t matter when); if we can get the trip and itinerary we want, we’ll be happy. We’re pretty much booking our summer plans around the WT. Aside from driving from Massachusetts to Alaska at the start of the break for some camping at Bartlett Cove Campground in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, our vacation plans will revolve around this trip.

We’re also hiking another Grand Canyon hike (to Cottonwood Campground and out to the South Rim), Mount Ellinor, Lost Coast, Devil’s Garden Loop in Arches, Mount Tammany hike in Jersey, and a hike up Old Rag in Shenandoah. Any other hikes we do will be after the aforementioned hikes; those hikes are what we are really banking our summer plans on.

We love Grand Canyon too much. This will be our fourth year hiking to the bottom. That hike never gets old.

[Bud]

“And this is all assuming you get exactly what you want for your permit request, of course. Or were you thinking walk up?

I haven’t seen what the parameters are in the new systems, but from my walk-up experience last year: being flexible helped me get an itinerary. And my weird short days that I had to take to make it work went by really quickly! Also, there are a few campsites not technically on the Wonderland that are nearby and still pleasant or at least convenient, e.g. Glacier Basin. They are Not on that wonderland guides trip planner app, but they are on the map on the MRNP backcountry trip planning map.

(me? I’m hoping to take my EG-loving seven-year-old up to Summerland for her first backcountry overnight)”

Thanks again, Katherine! I hope you get to take your 7-year old on that trip! How fun! Your information was quite helpful and absolutely gives up more food for thought!

[Katherine .]

Probability wise if you only need 4 nights, then the odds of getting what you want are easier!

Warning that I got a flat on the rough road up to Mowich Lake (for the Spray Park day hike). That was interesting.

[BlackHatGuy]

 

While I’m about 2.5 hours away from Longmire (I live in Arlington, WA), you’re welcome to drop by for a nice shower and real bed for a night before and/or after the Wonderland Trail if you so desire.

[Bud]

Thanks for spreading such kindness, Doug!  Our plan is to stay at the inn at Longmire before heading to Olympic National Park to tackle Mount Ellinor.  Again, it’s kindness like that which makes the world go ’round!  I’ll be sure to pay it forward as well … :)

[Author]

Posts