Day 7 Maple Creek to Longmire ~10.2miles

I knew the last day was going to be pretty mellow. It had really pounded rain the night before and it was socked in but dry in the morning, so I made myself a second cup of coffee before leaving camp. The whole hike was wooded and while spectacular in its own right - the whole hike was close enough to roads to get day hikers - and probably would have gotten a lot more had the conditions not been off and on rain and low visibility. That being said, it was pretty nice. I wore my 'holy dry clothes' for most of the hike and got to Longmire around 2:30 having left camp around 9:30am.

There were a few small slides on this slope above a creek

You can see the road-cut across the valley. Civilization looms.

Obviously I had great shots of the mountain on my exit. . . but it did keep the trail a little emptier.

Day 6 - Summerland to Maple Creek 15.6miles

The first four miles from Summerland to Indian Bar cross Panhandle Gap, the highest elevation point of the Wonderland Trail. The whole section was pretty burly when I made it with strong headwinds, rain, low visibility and that is because I weathered out a thunderstorm complete with hail at the shelter waiting for these 'better conditions'. There is basically no shelter along the route and I had to open my pack and put on my puffy mid-hike due to the temperature which is pretty unusual since usually climbing a mountain produces plenty of heat. Anyway, we had a really cool little posse camped out at Summerland most of which was headed South and met back up at the Indian Bar shelter to defrost. From Indian Bar I crossed a little snow, but basically dropped into the woods and descended all the way to Nickel Creek, Box Canyon (and virtual civilization), and into Maple Creek.

Summerland meadow

Standard visibility at a pass along near Panhandle Gap

One of the frozen tarns I passed

One of the last shots I took before deciding there was just too much rain

Looking back at Panhandle Gap from Indian Bar - obviously lens was a 'bit' wet

This was the view leaving Indian Bar - the snow leaving Indian Bar wasn't bad - again Panhandle Gap in the background



Day 3 - Golden Lakes to Eagles Roost 12.1miles

I guess I must of slept really well. I was the first one out of camp before 8am and broke cobwebs and knocked last nights rain off of all of the vegetation for the first 5 miles. At some point I looked at my rain gear and it was all insanely covered in bear grass flowers.  The hike started to feel like a real trail on this day - I ended up running into a handful of people I would later run into toward the end of my hike and I got my first re-supply and Jeff joined the hike.  I arrived at Mowich around 1:30pm.


Golden Lakes

I think the Mowich River was my favorite of the whole trip - I don't think this picture really gives a true feeling of how raging and how huge it really was.

Day 2 - South Puyallup River to Golden Lakes ~11.5m

The Wonderland Trail is amazingly diverse, some days, you felt like you get all of that diversity in just a few miles.  This was one of them.  I was getting over a little cold and slept in a bit finally leaving camp around 9:30. Despite waking up in the forest near a river, I quickly climbed above the snow line, descended back into the forest, saw a bear and her two cubs, hiked through the fog eventually getting to a sunny burn area and finally camping near a forested lake around 4:30. Insane day.

I found this balloon at about ~5,700ft. First stretch of snow on the trip.



St. Andrews Lake

Starting to get socked in with fog

Descended below the fog - near N. Puyallup Camp

Burn approaching Golden Lakes - much prettier in person.

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