White River to Berkeley Camp Aug 8
Back in August I had the chance to check something off my bucket list – I don’t really have a bucket list but this trek was definitely a goal. There are so many epic hikes in Washington and every year I apply for permits to at least a few with the understanding that most of them won’t pan out. This year I won a slot to book an early itinerary on the Wonderland Trail. For those who don’t know, the Wonderland is a 93 mile trail that circumnavigates Mount Rainier. It is not a climbing permit and I did not summit Rainier. Winning the lottery didn’t actually guarantee I could do the whole trail either, at the time I tried to sign up I was only able to book reservations for the ‘northern loop’ but I spoke with my 3 hiking partners and we decided that I would go down to the ranger station the day before and try to switch our permit to a whole loop. This was a bit of a gamble but it paid off! We were able to get all our desired sites plus our final days camp at the coveted “Summerland” campsite and complete the full loop. We spent that night at the drive-up campsite at White River and on the morning of August 8, set out on our journey. Our hiking group was me, my daughter S, a local friend K, and her good hiking buddy from out of state R. My daughter and I shared a tent but the other two each brought their own.
The day started off with a steep uphill from White River to Sunrise, followed by some rolling terrain along the Wonderland, then diverting north onto the “Northern Loop”. For those playing along at home – yes this means we wound up doing more than 93 miles of the regular Wonderland, we did the “super wonderland.” In the meadows below Sunrise we saw our first bear browsing around and minding his own business about 50 feet off the trail.
Bugs were bad at Berkeley. I’m still not sure if some locations were buggier than others, or if some days weather conditions promoted more bugs than others. There were so many wildflowers! I no longer have exact mileage for each day but most days were between 10 and 11 miles, with our shortest day being just under 8 and our longest day being about 12 miles with between 2000 to 3000 feet of elevation gain. This was a shorter day so we’d have an easier one when we set out.
(edit) My actual notes from the trail:
On the trail by 730AM. Up the big hill. Met 3 girls who recognized R from another long distance hike. 2nd Breakfast at Sunrise. Saw a Bear, ground squirrels, a frog, butterflies. Lots of mosquitos and flies. Reached Berkeley @2pm, So many Wildflowers. Passed a creek that went underground.
