Day 5 - Mystic to Summerland 20.8miles

Originally I had planned on the previous day ending at Carbon River, but my rough calculations showed about 5,500ft of elevation gain so I shaved a thousand feet and almost 4 miles off of it and camped at Mystic. The result is that Day 5 was a monster day. Jeff and I left camp at 7:30am winding past the Winthrop Glacier before climbing through the woods into Berkley Park before dropping into Sunrise via Sourdough Ridge around 1:30 (~9.2m).  Early in on the day we ran into a geology class doing moraine mapping and water sediment testing and later ran into a handful of people doing the Northern Loop trail which looked like a pretty awesome 2 night trip. It had rained a little over the night and day 5 was mostly cloudy and socked in with a few moments when the sun popped through.

Winthrop Glacier terminous

Right before Berkley Park, we apparently just missed a herd of goats

Looking into the Berkley Park bowl

Berkley Park was amazing - it can easily be day hiked from Sunrise and is on my list to revisit

We crossed dozens of bridges like these

Emmons Glacier coming down from Sunrise

After eating a veggie burger, beer, and then some coffee (and having a bit of a food cache mishap) we left Sunrise for White River which involved us taking some wrong turns and making it a 4.9miles trek rather than the 3.1 it could have been. Jeff and I split ways here and he met up with Joy for a night of car camping.


I think that this is a little piece of Fryingpan Glacier approaching Summerland

Summerland Shelter - where I was lucky enough to spend the night

Day 4 - Eagles Roost to Mystic (Spray Park Detour) ~11 miles +/- 3

The first three days of the hike didn't seem boring, but the rest of the hike was actually insane. I think it started at Eagles Roost with our neighbors offering us their 'extra' vodka, but continued with a trip to Spray Falls, a several mile detour and route finding mishap above Spray Park and then past the Carbon Glacier, Moraine Park, and 'Old Desolate' mountains - which I am sure is where a very serious and probably upset with wizard lives - and then we found Mystic Lake.

Wakey, Wakey



Note marmot cameo

2nd full on suspension bridge of the hike

So it isn't just that large white thing that is the Carbon Glacier, but that rocky mass in front of it too

The birth of the Carbon River

Seriously a wizard lives here; Nothing should look that menacing under a blue sky.

Day 1 - Longmire to South Puyallup ~11.1 miles

July 18th 2014, I woke up at the ass crack of dawn the morning of my hike with the intention of getting to the ranger station by their 7:30 opening, but due to unforeseen circumstances (including mailing my second cache via UPS and getting a second breakfast in Eatonville) I got there at about 10:40 and probably hit the trail at 11:30am. The hike was generally pretty sunny and the terrain was gorgeous. I saw a ton of flowers, my first glacier of the trip and generally felt strong.



My first real view of the mountain from the trail - trusty backpack in foreground

Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge

Tahoma Glacier



Unknown wildflower

The first day had some elevation gain - I believe that this was the climb up Emerald Ridge

Avalanche Lilies and the Tahoma Glacier