Friday, September 25, 2009

Wonderland Trail day 8

We got up an hour early at 5 and as we were breaking camp it began to rain. Within 30 minutes we were all soaked. The trail through the alpine meadows was flooded and our exposure left ud drenched. We saw a deer within 30 minutes of camp and shortly thereafter passed a ranger patrol cabin in a meadow of an area called Indian Henry's Hunting Ground.

We hiked down 2000 feet over the next 3 miles to our second suspension bridge crossing Tahoma Creek.Then we turned back uphill for 3 miles to climb the 2000 feet back.













We hiked up next to the Tahoma Glacier for the next couple of hours in driving rain and howling wind. Warmth became a big issue. If we stopped hiking to catch our breath we immediately got very very very cold as opposed to the very cold we could maintain if we kept moving. We crested at Emerald Ridge where we looked down to see 4 white goats at the foot of the glacier in the valley below. We decided to pitch a lunch tent for warmth and food. We pitched the two man Big Agnes Seedhouse and all climbed inside literally creating large puddles to sit in. We ate and huddles and after 30 minutes resumed our hike. As the rain slowly subsided, we descended 2000 feet to cross the South Puyallup River and back up 2000 feet to our camp at Klapache Park. We passed beautiful Saint Andrew's Lake and the skys parted enough to see Rainer for the first time all day. At camp we filtered water from a nearby mudhole Aurora Lake.

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