I took a few notes along the way and these are the things I want to remember for later.
Highlights: Yellowstone Cliff & Windy Gap, Emerald Ridge, swimming at Golden Lake and St Andrews Lake, the ‘fairy hall’ like quality of lower Ipsut Pass in the fog, the Silver Forest south of Golden Lakes, the entire stretch from just north of Nickel Creek through Indian Bar to Summerland.
Should have brought: A dedicated bottle for the bidet – one that I don’t like very much. A sit pad (got left behind by accident), waterproof pants/lighter rain gear, more socks for S, neosporin, a safety pin in my med kit, more alleve, warmer PJs for S, ramen flavor packets to add to our food, miso soup, spices in general, more TP (N saved us), soap! (which somehow got left behind), a faster water purifier, and the pesto & parmesan noodles I’ve brought kayaking before but left out this time.
This was a great idea: bandana, pickles, snickers bars, dehydrated risotto, dehydrated panang curry, mashed potatoes, clothes that quick dry
Leave behind: extra fuel cannisters, my heavier raincoat (replace with something lighter). We never used the playing cards – so maybe?
We had word (from a bit of cell service back on day 8) that N, K’s sister was going to try to hike up to Summerland camp before sunrise on our last day to bring us breakfast and also to get some early morning photography. Thus we all got up super early to watch the show. My iphone wasn’t really up to the task, so trust me that it was far more spectacular than what you see. For starters there were, as you might imagine, so many stars. We sat in the darkness looking up at the mountain and I saw more stars! It took me a moment to realize that I was seeing the headlamps of climbers on their way to the summit. We were able to make out more the longer we looked, at least a dozen, and we could see that they were making progress and see a rough outline of the route all of them were taking. I also turned and saw another night hiker’s light up at Panhandle gap, where we’d been the day before.
The rising sun turned the mountain pink
Our campsite at Summerland
Searching for the best view
A bit after sunrise N turned up with, I kid you not, a charcuterie board. Not exactly a board – but crackers, brie, prosciutto – the works. You know how any regular food tastes like the best food you’ve ever had right after you’ve been eating, for example, rehydrated rice and beans for 10 days? This was amazing. Also that light I’d seen at Panhandle Gap? That was N. She’d gone past us all the way up to the gap to catch the sunrise, then hiked back DOWN to bring us food.
Best breakfast ever
N showing me how crossing bridges is done
Half of this hike was familiar to me. I’d been as far as Panhandle gap with K in the past, so it wasn’t until we passed the trailhead and kept going toward White River that I was in new territory. But I can see why K chose it – it’s one of the prettiest places in the park. The hike to White River was mostly deep forest, with only one ominous warning sign that the White River bridge was out and impassable. We deduced that this sign was old, since we’d seen the bridge when we started the first day and there hadn’t been any significant weather since then. Also, we spoke to almost everyone going the other way and you’d think someone would have mentioned it.
A bit of celebration at the last scary bridge (3 banana peels)
And we were done. Time to return to everyday life. On the one hand, I really wanted a proper shower, but on the other hand, I wasn’t looking forward to returning to the world and its problems.
This was going to be a big day and one that I’d had some concerns about. We needed to travel over 11 miles and had at least 4000 feet of elevation gain, which put it at the top of the range of any day hike I’d ever done before. It would also take us to the highest elevation on the entire trip, about 7000 feet. On the other hand, some of my concerns were because I’d been initially misreading the map and thought we had more than 5000 feet of gain and I’d been steeling myself for that. When I realized the error and that it was ‘only’ 4000 feet I felt much more optimistic about it.
Uphill, out of Nickel Creek and it wasn’t long before the trees started to thin out and we reached a ridge where we had some views of the area. We also passed a family of marmots who were almost completely unconcerned about our passing by. Mom and dad sat on a rock while two kids played. There was still a lot of beargrass in bloom, amazing views everywhere, and we began our descent to Indian Bar.
Up out of the forestMarmot FamilyMount Hood in the distanceDescending to Indian Bar
Above Indian Bar
Indian Bar and Summerland are the two most popular campsites on the entire trail, and they fell last on our hike because placing them that far out was the only way we could complete the circuit when I went to get the permit. I can see why they are so popular. The downhill to the camp was a nice respite.
2 banana peels. Solid, wide, just very high.Indian Bar shelterBunks inside the shelterIndian Bar
We had lunch at the little creek below the cabin. The downside of having that bit of downhill was that now we had to go back UP, and the climb out of Indian Bar was long, steep, and exposed. K & I suggested to the two younger members of the group (younger than me by 15 and 30 years) that maybe they should go ahead at their own pace to get to Summerland before us and try to grab one of the better campsites. I handed over the permit and they started out.
Climbing up out of Indian BarLooking back the way we had come
The climb was hot and we decided to go as slowly as we wanted and to take many breaks. We eventually got up into some snowfields to cross which gave us the opportunity to cool off. Kim made a snowball and started to carry it with her so I dubbed it the ‘snow baby’. Looking out at all the open grass below us, I started to talk about how we hadn’t seen any mountain goats on the trip and I was somewhat disappointed. I’d seen some at a distance on a day hike to Burroughs and thought we would encounter more. While talking, and scanning the fields far below I finally saw a little white speck of ‘snow’ that I realized was moving. We watched for a while and confirmed that there was, indeed, a single goat visible far, far away. But there was no point in trying to take a photo. It didn’t look like anything. I promised to work on my goat-summoning magical powers, and we hiked on.
Now and then we’d catch a glimpse of hikers ahead of us which we presumed were S & R, but we weren’t able to confirm that until we reached Summerland and could talk to them. But my goat summoning paid off! Just before we reached Panhandle Gap, the highest point, I looked to my left and there was a goat RIGHT THERE walking almost parallel to us. We were in a very open area so he had to have been following alongside for quite a while before we noticed him. Once spotted, and once it became apparent that our paths were slowly converging, he ran to get ahead of us.
He decided to run to get ahead of us just as we reached the gap. We stopped here for a break and to survey our options. We knew there was a hazardous ‘snow bridge’ here and one look at it told us we weren’t going to take that path (photo below). This is the main path, but the snow that lingered on it had melted out below so to stay on the path you had to walk on a bridge of snow of unknown thickness while everything underneath it had melted out. It looked very easy to either slip off of it or punch through unexpectedly.
K with the snow babySurprise GoatPanhandle GapThis IS the trail, but we said “Nope”
Instead of risking that we opted to scramble down the talus slope to the left. This was slow going, and I heard later, S’s least favorite part of the trail. I thought she’d love it because it reminded me of jumping around on the boulders at the Carbon River, but apparently, during her descent, she rested her weight on a very large boulder and it MOVED. And that made her very untrusting of everything around her.
This part of the landscape looked like the surface of the moon to me, and made me a little sad because I imagine it used to mostly be glacier, but now we could see Summerland below us. We had one more dubious crossing – it was only a creek, but there was no bridge and the rock-hopping prospects were not great. K finally decided to go for it and jumped onto some big rocks. I considered it, then chickened out and instead put on my sandals and waded across at a spot where I could see the bottom.
Summerland
S & R had a great spot for us. It was a little far from the toilet, but also far from other campsites for privacy and close to a nice view. We had our supper near a marmot friend and they told us about the slight incident. Apparently when they got there and started setting up camp, another hiker kept aggressively asking, multiple times, if they were going to stay *there* and if they had a permit. (They were and they did). From the tone of it, I think this hiker might have thought that both S & R were teenagers off on a lark. In reality: S is a Jr in college and R is a PROFESSOR.
This was our last full day so I did my best to eat as much food as possible so I wouldn’t have to carry it. We planned to get up early the next morning to watch the sunrise and we were expecting K’s sister to hike in to meet us.
The good: waterfalls with narrow steep sides, reflection lake, Box Canyon, Sylvia Falls, Martha Falls. There was a bathroom with flush toilets and a sink!
Our destination was Nickel Creek, a short way past Box Canyon, which is one of the potential trailheads for those starting on the Wonderland Trail. That means it has some facilities and parking. If I was going to bail because of my ankle, Box Canyon was my last chance. I decided that I could just take a little more naproxen and it’d be good despite being a little concerned about our upcoming 12 mile day. The day started cold but then warmed up so by the time we got to reflection lake I wanted to change my shirt. The problem is that it’s right by the main road and tourists kept walking up. I just tried to be quick about it.
slot canyonBox CanyonNarada FallsAptly named Reflection LakeRest Stop
The bad: Eroding, scary trails that crumbled beneath us. Toothbrush failure. I’m still lactose intolerant and apparently the cheese in the 4-cheese mashed potatoes is an issue. Someone opening a cooler at the parking lot asked if ‘anyone’ wanted snacks but didn’t mean us. And we wanted snacks.
Calamity! I was not expecting this to happenCrumbly trail
The photo doesn’t really show how bad that section of trail was. Even my friends who were striding confidently across all those questionable bridges thought this was sketchy. 10.9 miles
Today was a cache day! We left Pyramid Creek, crossed the terrible Kautz creek (no bridge), and headed to Rampart Ridge – a place I’ve been snowshoeing before but I didn’t recognize any of it without snow. We encountered more and more people until we finally reached Longmire and the bathroom with flush toilets and a sink! We dubbed this destination “Lothlorien” – a place for rest and recovery. K’s sister and her fiancee were there to meet us with supplies (drinks, chocolate, baby wipes, extra toilet paper). We picked up our second cache, washed up as much as possible in the sink, and then had a little party at a picnic table.
Our Group Gets BiggerRampart Ridge
K’s sister walked with us part way to our next campsite before turning back and we kept going through a flatter, more forested part of the trail following the Paradise River. When we stopped to rest at a waterfall we met several groups going the other way and exchanged information. One of these was a group of two ladies who stopped to chat with us. Becky and Kathleen were both in their early-mid seventies and were doing the full circuit in 13 days (with a stay at a lodge in the middle). They were so sweet, told us about how they had a mix of ultra lightweight gear combined with some really antique stuff that weighed far too much. I’d been stressing a little bit about my ankle, but this screwed up my resolve to see it through to the end. This was also when we decided that our group should do this hike again, as a reunion, in 20 years. I’ll be the same age as Kathleen and Becky. 6.9 miles
The clouds were so strangeAdorable waterfallAfternoon tea spot
The next morning we began the climb up from the South Puyallup river along Emerald Ridge, and this was one of the most spectacular views in the whole park. It was also a little sad because we could see where the glacier USED to run straight down the valley and it has retreated significantly. The Wonderland Trail was originally a service trail for park staff to monitor the park and wasn’t designed for tourism. When they decided to open it up for public use the goal was to have the trail ‘kiss’ the edges of the glaciers, and I’m sure it did when it was built.
Edge of the glacier visible on the left
Friendly Marmot checking us out
All things must end, and after skirting Emerald Ridge we dropped back into the trees by crossing this moderately scary bridge.
We then passed into another very pretty area, “Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground” which featured one of the old patrol cabins that still looks to be in use. And we made a small detour to visit Mirror Lakes.
Mirror LakeIndian Henry’s Cabin
From here we wound up back in some rather buggy forest, past Devil’s Dream Creek and to our campsite on Pyramid Creek. I wasn’t able to get a good photograph but these creeks were in very deep slot-like canyons that I found fascinating. I might need to hang around all day waiting for good light to do them justice. This was also around the time I noticed my ankle was bothering me but since we had a few short days ahead I wasn’t too worried about it yet.
Berries! Early we went through an area called the Silver Forest – named for dead, bleached-white trees. It was hot enough to swim in St Andrews Lake and we had fantastic views of Bear Rock, Tokaloo Rock and Spire. Much sturdier bridges today and we passed the remnant of a ruined stone bridge and road that used to lead to the N Puyallup. We passed through Klapatchee Park which was another highly rated campground with a lake and unobstructed views of Rainier. The pond was full of tadpoles. We spent the night at S. Puyallup, which didn’t have high ratings from other campers, but did have a very interesting basalt column formation located near the toilet called the “colonnades”. We opted to have dinner down there and referred to it as “dining at the colonnades” which sounds a lot like a posh restaurant. 12 miles total
An early startBeargrassKlapatchee ParkSt Andrews lakeSomething in this shot is Tokaloo Rock and SpireInteresting rock formationsFancy pickles in my lunchcollonadescollonades
We were now half way. S was feeling much better about our pace and had started to lead the group.
We woke up to wet tents and gear and slept in a little to try to let things dry. It was much warmer today but shady. Early in the day we met the trail crew that had been working on rebuilding bridges. Just the day before we’d learned from another ranger that the bridge across the S. Mowich was in. Back when I was booking these trips I knew that sometimes the bridges hadn’t been placed and you might have to ford the rivers, and I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting that to look like, but on day 0, when we were camped next to the White River, I knew that I did NOT want to ford anything here they called a ‘river’. The White River was a boulder field with a jet of rock sludge shooting out of a glacier. It was a gray-brown cataract and standing next to it I was aware of a vibration and a low rumble, which I realized was the sound of boulders rolling beneath the water. Now I presume that they wouldn’t be advising hikers to cross exactly THAT, but so far the Carbon and a few other crossings had looked just as bad.
No matter how much I complain about the bridges being scary, they are a big improvement!
The crew did a great job with this bridge. Not scary!
We climbed a long uphill to Golden Lakes where we met a ranger in residence at a little log cabin. Golden Lakes was lovely. We were so hot when we got there that we jumped into the water. I don’t have many photos from today and it’s partly because I didn’t want to start snapping away when we (or other campers) were partially undressed. There were mosquitos at the campsite so we stayed near the lake where there was a breeze to cook our dinner. We met several other hikers sharing the site with us and also spoke to some trail runners. There were a ton of people we’d passed on the trail, carrying almost nothing and heading north past us. At Golden Lakes we met one of the organizers who was running ‘sweep’ to make sure all their runners made it safely to Mowich. They were doing the whole loop in 3 days: 31 miles per day. And they said, ‘well, it’s easier because we aren’t carrying all that gear’. Friends – let me tell you that I would not be covering 31 miles with or without gear.
Tent SiteFried Egg Slime MoldWaterfallSunset
We went up to a lookout point near the tents to watch the sunset with other campers. Two of our fellow campers were from BC and had suggestions for hikes there: Porto Cove, Garibaldi, and the West Coast Trail, all in BC
On day 3 I had to cross MANY “bridges” that I deemed ‘sketchy’. Most of these bridges were logs that had been smoothed on one side with a railing bolted on. But sometimes the railing was broken, or loose, or leaned so far away that I couldn’t reach it, or sometimes the whole log had rolled a bit and now was at an angle. I am NOT a fan of these things. I’m not a fan of heights and I don’t trust my balance as much as I did when I was younger.
I eventually came up with a rating system of ‘banana peels’ to describe how likely I thought it was that I would plunge off of one to my death. Here is the moment that inspired the rating system, but I want to note that this was not the scariest bridge I crossed this day. That honor went to the broken slanted log we crossed before I started documenting them. I had to scoot across that one on my butt.
4 banana peel bridge over the Carbon River
THE RATING SYSTEM One banana peel. This is a solid bridge. It’s wide, flat, no rotten boards. You’d feel comfortable letting someone pass. You can hang out here and take photos. I would walk backwards across this bridge.
Two banana peels. Still a solid bridge. It’s comfortable to walk across and stop on. It might not be wide enough for passing, or, if it’s a wide bridge, maybe there are some rotten boards you need to watch out for.
Three banana peels. There’s something not great about this bridge. Is it missing a handrail when it needs one? Is it too narrow? It’s slanted at an uncomfortable angle. Maybe it’s very high and narrow, or it moves a bit. I’ll still walk across it at a normal pace but there’s something about it to give me pause.
Four banana peels. Something has gone seriously wrong here. Who built this thing? I’m walking sideways or slide-stepping to cross this. It’s wet and narrow, or there’s a vertigo-inducing whirling cataract below it and it moves. Multiple points of failure.
Five banana peels. How has it come to this? I’m questioning my life choices that have led me down this path. I’ll still cross it, slowly, but I’m muttering obscenities, or curses, or prayers.
Six banana peels. This is probably not a bridge but something that has to be crossed anyway. It’s a rotten, slanted, broken log. Bonus if it’s wet. It’s a stack of slippery logs over a raging torrent. I’m not walking on it. If it must be crossed I’m crawling or scooting on my butt.
7+ banana peels. I’m not crossing it.
Since the bank of the Carbon river seemed to be crumbling there were something like 6 bridges over parts of it even after we’d crossed the main bridge. I didn’t take pictures of them all but some of the bridge designs were quite unique.
Wire handrail, bridge is tiltedA staircase!Scary 5-peel bridge lurking in fogA two-part bridge. Unique.
Now that’ I had a rating system I started to pay more attention to other bridges as we came to them.
R not finding this as terrifying as I found it. 4-peel bridge. Handrail ends before the end of the bridge.
Here are some very safe 1-banana peel bridges
solid 1 banana peelVery safeScary location, but solid bridge so maybe a 2A bridge to be proud ofUnique 1-railing bridge
These are all in the 2-3 Banana Peel Category. Nothing too terrifying, but I had to steel myself for a few.
Leaning bridgeLuckily I didn’t need this railing anywayBridge has fallen overWas this a 4? I don’t rememberBusted but not scaryGood railing, flat surface, dry.
I should have taken better notes. I know that some bridges turned out to be not as scary as they looked, and some that looked safe in the photo felt terrifying when I was there. Clearly I have to go back. But here are two standouts.
The Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge is where I gave everyone a scare. It was really high and narrow and there was a sign saying only one person at a time. I asked to go first on the theory that I’d get it over with and could take pictures of everyone else crossing. What happened: I got about 30 feet out and stopped abruptly and my friends thought maybe I was starting to panic. What happened was I stepped out of the shelter of the canyon wall and was suddenly in high winds which started to blow my hat off. I had to stop and I stuck the string from my hat in my mouth so I could keep going. I rate it a 3 banana peel.
The Tahoma Creek Suspension Bridge.
This atrocity. I think this was the crossing of the Kautz Creek (it may have been Pyramid) just before Longmire. The creek had a shallow spot and if I’d really wanted to avoid it I could have put on my sandals and waded across, but S threw down the gauntlet by scouting upstream a little to find this not-a-bridge, pile of wet logs that she hopped over to cross. What you can’t see is that she tried to use a stick to brace in the water and the stick almost vanished because that little bit of creek is both fast and easily 3 feet deep. I got across it by putting my feet on the lower log, the one in the water, my hands on the upper one and crab-walking over it. My feet got a little wet. 6 banana peels.
Today we planned to split the party. K & R really wanted to hike the “Spray Park” section of the trail, which sounds beautiful, but my daughter said she wasn’t used to the pace yet and was unsure about committing to an additional thousand feet of elevation gain and 3 miles. Two days later she’ll be charging ahead of everyone while holding a coffee mug casually, but she wasn’t ready yet.
The day started sunny but we saw the fog in the Carbon River valley below us, and we followed the trail down into the fog. We hiked together down to the Carbon River turnoff and split up. At that point my daughter and I promptly got lost.
River of fogbear signThe Carbon River
The Carbon River Bridge is one that had washed out multiple times and been replaced so when we came out of the forest in the fog, it wasn’t immediately clear where the bridge WAS. Scanning around we spotted flagging that led us over river cobbles to the north until we finally spied the bridge in the distance. I did NOT like this bridge. I have this quick panning shot of it that doesn’t really show why it was scary. The river was fast and dangerous, you could hear the rumble of rocks being turned over in it, the bridge was high above the water, and at a few points the railing pulled so far away from the main log that I couldn’t reach it. Or if it DID try to reach it I’d have to be resting all my weight on it, which seemed like a really bad idea. I hated this bridge.
Also it moved under my weight
We’d gone quite a ways north to find the bridge and so I assumed we’d have to backtrack to a spot parallel with where we left the trees to get back on the trail on the other side. I was wrong about that. But that’s what we did, walking right past some flagging in the fog, and following the river bed upstream to the south. Eventually we found ourselves scrambling over boulders and hopping on rocks, which was when I had the idea to check the mapping app to see what the problem was. We’d walked right past the trail and were now running parallel past an old section that had been abandoned due to washouts.
This is not the trail
All told it took us an hour to get from the trail on the east bank to the trail on the west bank after all the boulder hopping, getting lost, and then stopping for a snack. S said this was her favorite part of the trail (where we got lost) because it was more technically challenging.
But we were back on course now! This next section, as we headed toward Ipsut Creek had a lot more hikers on it (since we were somewhat near a big trail access point) and also featured perhaps 5 or 6 more bridges over parts of the Carbon River that had fallen in.
The fog never lifted as we went along the Carbon River, or when we turned up Ipsut Creek toward Ipsut pass. I think I’d like to come back here in the sun as I feel I probably missed out on some good views as we gained more and more elevation, but even in the fog the trail was full of tiny waterfalls and narrow, magical little grottos.
banana slugTiny waterfallLooking up at Ipsut Pass
We took a break between the two cliffs at the top of the pass before taking our time heading gently down to Mowich Lake. This is a bigger campground, accessible by car and the location of our first food cache. So while it spoiled the atmosphere of being deep in the wilderness, we also had access to lots of snacks. Snacks were important! Sometime on day 1 we’d started talking about Lord of the Rings, assigned ourselves hobbit names, and stressing the importance of hobbit meals. This turned out to be useful for everyone as a pattern of taking multiple small meals throughout the day was what wound up working best to keep everyone safe and happy. Breakfast, Second Breakfast, Elevensies, Lunch, Tea, Dinner, and Supper. On most days we’d reached our campsite by Tea time.
We had a harder time than you might expect finding the campsite at Mowich Lake because there were little trails everywhere but no signs. Eventually we found it, pitched our tent, found the cache and waited for K & R to meet us. It rained some that evening but not before we had a chance to see another visitor. This time a mama bear and her TWO cubs. I saw both of the cubs but, again, didn’t get a photo of them. Although she is cinnamon-brown in color, she is a black bear. You can see how close she was to the tent sites.
Mowich LakeFood CachesMama Bear
To recap: on day 1 we saw one bear. On day 2 we saw two bears. On day 3 we saw three bears. We felt that this might get really exciting by day 10, but alas, we would see no more bears for the rest of the trip.
(edit) My notes from the trail Deer, snakes, banana slug. Hiked down (long way down!) to the river where we split – sending Frodo and Sam down the river while Merry and Pippin entered Fangorn. It took us an hour to cross the river because 1) the bridge was hard to reach (boulders) and then we got lost – walking past the trailhead and scrambling up the riverbed until we realized our mistake. Along the river were many scary bridges but it was flat until past Ipsut. We began the slow incline past many waterfalls & mossy rocks. Last mile was very steep and overgrown. We emerged between 2 towering cliffs pursued by fog. Easy descent to Mowich where we got lost again. Heavy mist -> rain. Cider was amazing! K & R arrived about 1 hour after us (5pm). Cinnamon bear and 2 cubs in campground.
