Wonderland Trail day 3

The morning of the third day we crossed the West Fork of the White River on a couple of paralell small logs. These washouts are massive and make me wonder at the power of the spring runoff. We continued down the ridge of a big moraine field (glacial deposits) and came upon the base of another massive glacier, Winthrop Glacier. We crossed Winthrop Creek and passed impressive Garda Falls. We had snacks overlooking the glacier and watched rocks fall. A seemingly never ending hike uphill would bring us to Granite Creek where we took lunc, PB and honey on tortillas. I had gotten my butt soaked just a bit earlier while pumping purified water from a trailside stream so I took the opportunity to change.

It was a cold day despite the climb and our ascent was taking us up into the cloud cover.

After lunch yet more uphill would bring us to a foggy rocky pass at about 6500 feet.

Occasionally the clouds parted to give us glimpses of the small valley. Once we went through the pass and began heading down the cloud simply opened up to a massive valley we hardly knew we were in. The place was absolutely magnifigant. Berkley Park would literally bring tears to Lance and filled us all with a sense of wonder.

Leaving Berkley Park, we climbed another pass and dropped down to Sunrise Camp and Shadow Lake. The camp was viewless but big and nice. The lake was a short walk down for water. Again we would camp near our friends Bob and his son Chad.

Wonderland Trail day 2

This morning had an auspicious start. We headed down on wobly legs to the Carbon River. Annie went down twice and Jennifer just missed a wasp nest hole in the ground, luckily only getting stung once. The hike down was under the towering peaks of Mother Mountain. We came to a swinging bridge crossing of the Carbon River. It really is not for those (me) who do not like heights. Upon crossing we headed up the canyon under the towering Northern Crags and were greeted with a tremendous view of the lowest glacier in the lower 48, the Carbon Glacier. We stopped several times along this 3 mile stretch right next to the glacier to watch the falling rocks. It was hard to concieve of this massive thing moving but we were witnessing the action.

Eventually we came to the meadows of Moraine Park. A massive set of meadows with gorgeous views and the first marmots we would see.

After a brutal end of the day climb we descended to Mystic Lake. We would camp just past this lake. We took off our boots and waded in the water. It was full of small frogs and tadpoles. Camp was much nicer and we met several other hikers whom we had seen throughout the day.

Wonderland Trail day 1

September 12th,

We arrived at Mowich Lake trailhead ready to get on the trail. We began our hike with the Wonderland trail South and then took the Spray Park Trail. It is longer and a much bigger climb but the scenery is not to be missed.

The climb included an overlook at Eagle Cliffs that would provide our first trailside view of the mountain. The side trail to Spray Falls was worth the effort as a small stream becomes massively spread out over the looming cliffs above. Finishing most of the ascent rewards with a beautiful alpine meadow in Spray Park and intimate views of 'Tahoma'. After a rest and some snow angels in the snowfields we headed down to our camp at Cataract Falls.We left the crowd behind on this descent as most were day hikers. The last mile seemed harder on us than the first mile of the day. Our packs were heavy as we had no cashe drops planned. Camp was miserable little spot with no views. The bathroom was hilarious as the walls of the privacy screen had collapsed. This left a person sitting on a throne about 5 feet in the air with camp site # 6 seemingly getting a show.