Wonderland Trail in 4 days

We’re both early risers and were up well before light, eat breakfast, broke camp and hit the trail with lamps on.  Just as it was getting daylight, we were descending a little finger below St Andrew’s Lake and chased a blueberry eating black bear off the trail.  This was a pretty decent sized black bear, probably pushing the 300 lb mark- evidently good calories in blueberries :)

More descent, now towards the South Puyallup River.  Followed by a steep ascent towards the Tahoma Glacier.  This was really nice country alpine country (evidently mountain goats thought so as well) and another area I want to revisit.

We dropped steeply to Tahoma Ck and then as predicted- a steep climb towards Mirror Lakes and Indian Henry’s hunting ground.  Cool patrol cabin up top.

We dropped into Devil’s Dream Ck and took a lunch break in the shade.  There is a campsite here, but in September anyways, no water very close.  Few more drops and a few more climbs and we were headed for Longmire.  Just outside of Longmire, we met another ranger and asked if there was any chance of changing our camp tonight from Snow Lake to Maple Ck.  Snow Lake is off the Wonderland and roughly a 3.5 mile detour, Maple Ck was further, but kept us on the trail which would help significantly the next day.  He said there was one site open and was nice enough to change our itinerary!  Maple Ck here we come.

The area around Longmire wasn’t overly exciting, mostly due to the road being close by.  We put it in overdrive as we still had a long way to go to Maple Ck.  At some point, I got behind Tom a good bit and he didn’t notice when he took a short detour to a waterfall (thinking I was right behind him).  Unbeknownst to me, I kept on trucking thinking Tom was still ahead of me.  Thinking I would catch up him to on a downhill stretch and not, I kicked in another notch.  Went by reflection Lake and Louise Lake and still no Tom- hmmm?  I only had one more notch to kick in, so I did.  A very steep descent into Steven’s Ck and no sight of him.  At dusk I hit the Maple Ck campsite and was greeted not by Tom, but by a gal bathing in the creek!  She wasn’t shy and we had a short conversation while she continued to bath.  I checked all the sites and no Tom and indeed there was only one site left (unlike the previous two nights where there were only one party at each site).

I was dead on my feet and got my shelter setup and supper going, just before dark.  Tom then rolled in and we discovered our snafu.  Tom said I was chasing a ghost, I said he was chasing a guy, chasing a ghost :)

Day three in the books, 29 miles 6200′ of gain- phew!

As on previous days we were up in the dark and on the trail with lamps on.  We had a long day ahead of us and a lot of climbing, so we kicked it into gear.  We were advised to water up at Nickel Ck as it was a long stretch without water, that was very accurate.  We climbed steeply and began to notice that it was smoke obscuring our view, but fog.  We climbed a steep, long finger above Nickel Ck.  I commented that we had seen a lot of wildlife, but no elk.  Probably a minute or two later, I saw fresh elk tracks and then we had bulls bugling on both sides of the ridge, pretty darn cool!  The higher we got, the more the fog was moving around- first obscuring a view and then revealing it, only to obscure it again.

We dropped down towards Indian Bar and found a great spot to eat lunch.  We had been in a lot of nice country, but have to say this was the nicest.

The group site at Indian Bar is an old rock cabin and they actually have wooden bunks in it, not a bad place to spend the night.

The climb out of Indian Bar was tough, tiptoe steep in places, but the views….

At one juncture we spotted 20+ goats on a steep, grassy knoll.  The basins below looked very elky and with time I’m sure we could have found some.

We went through Panhandle Gap on our way to Summerland.

Summerland also has a neat group site, no bunks, but a nice roomy wooden floor

We weren’t a couple of hundred yards from Summerland when it started to rain (well actually gropple at first).  This wasn’t a quick Montana afternoon storm rolling through, this was a honest and goodness set in hard rain!  We quickly donned our rain gear and headed down Fryingpan Ck and a good clip.  The heavy rain kept me interested in making good time, evidently Tom too, because we were flying down the trail :). As we neared the White River there was a sign advising traveling the last couple of miles on the road due to severe conditions crossing the White.  Not sure why road miles are so much slower and longer (it seems), but eventually we made it to the campground- 23 miles and 6800′ of gain to finish our last day.

On our travel home the next day, were in rain most of the way and all the thick smoke from days earlier, was gone- nice way to finish up a trip.

Thanks for reading.

Great report. I’d love to do this trip.

Nice job, that’s some respectable mileage and elevation. And I’m glad you didn’t get kippered.

Did you supplement your food with that nice looking fungi?

thanks guys!  definitely a really nice area, will be going back for sure

I had to keep Tom away from it :)

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful country.

Your secret weapon is the same as my secret weapon!

I am convinced that time dilates during road walks. Absolutely convinced.

Yeah, Fritos is a backpacking food that just works. Wouldn’t touch them at home; never go without!

Plain = ‘secret weapon’?? Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.

Say hello to my little friend.

^ yeah- chili cheese are good too; my wife says much better in fact :)

Nice report, hella daily miles! Thanks for sharing.

thanks Doug :)  you have a very nice backyard!

Great trip report my friend! Fritos, refried beans, and taco sauce served at spray park… Epic. We have seen some killer country this year cant wait for the next one.

Fritos for the win!

So much country, so little time :)

great report and pictures

at least there was no bear crossing the suspension bridge : )

^ yeah there is that :)

guessing this is somewhat in your backyard too

yeah, I’ve day hiked in Rainier.  I summited a long time ago.  Beautiful area.

I don’t like that you have to reserve individual sites for individual nights.  And you camp on top of other people.

Other mountains like Adams, Goat Rocks, Hood, Jefferson, and Three Sisters have really nice scenery and trails also.  Not as crowded.  Although I can think of a couple times I’ve camped at a spot, then a dozen people came along and camped right next to me.  Which was fine, not a lot of other spots to camp.  Although if I want more privacy I can usually find a spot further off the trail.

yeah- all my trips into Glacier NP have been long day hikes, never went through a reservation system before and never have had to camp in pre-selected sites before

having said that, I think we’re going to try and go back (w/ our wives in tow) into some of that same country in Rainier; I also have a couple of long routes I want to do in Glacier

some areas of Olympic National Park also have reserve specific site on specific night

I always avoided Rainier when I was growing up in Wa. state and never hiked there until years after I moved to Ca. When I finally hiked there, briefly over two and a half days (I was en route to see my mother) I was really impressed. Definitely worth going back to.

the restrictions on camp sites does feel a little claustrophobic but it’s a small price to pay. Rainier is a hard hike! I’m really impressed that you could do it in four days. Of course I could too**** whoof whoof–I just choose not too…

Glacier Peak wilderness is less crowded/ restricted and offers some of the same type views of a huge glacier covered volcano. Also very fine country for sure.

****if a bear was chasing me the whole way

Great report Mike.  We hiked it in six and felt pretty spent at the end.  Four days is one helluva hike.

The smoke is a real bummer.

Thanks Ian.  If had to do again, I’d go 5-6 days :)

Nice report, and long mileage days due to your limited time.

For those thinking of hiking the Wonderland Trail, my advice is to not race through paradise, if you can spare the time.

My family and I did the hike many years ago in 13 nights and enjoyed every minute of it.  Almost two weeks on one of the most beautiful trails (perhaps the most beautiful) in the US, if not the world.

Again, no criticism here, HYOH and all that.  But this trail is so fantastic it is well worth it to take your time.

The wonderland trail has some killer country however bear in mind that the longer you take lessons your chance in getting permits. Trying to get 13 campsites would be like hitting the powerball. Dont skip spray park is my advice its worth the hump….