Wonderland Trail Blog
This past July, I hiked the Wonderland Trail, which is a 100-mile backpacking trail that goes around Mt. Rainier in Washington. This was my first week-long backpacking trip, and nervousness was an understatement. To top it off, we decided to fly to Washington with no permit (insert nervous laugh). We were banking on getting a walk-up permit at arrival. Before leaving, we made several flexible itineraries of campgrounds and mileage to strengthen our chances of getting a permit. By “We” I mean my hiking crew, by which we call ourselves the “Trailblazers.” It includes me, my sister, Delaney, and our good friend, Jamie. I will say, three women tackling a trail like this is pretty badass. Anyway, we borrowed a car from our friend who lives and Washington and made our way to the Longmire Ranger Station at Mt. Rainier. By God’s grace, we landed a permit to complete the Trail in 6.5 days which included pretty heavy milage.
That night we dispersed camped at a nearby river and woke up the next morning ready to start the adventure. We weighed our packs at nearly 40lbs (I use the Osprey Aura 65L pack). Ummmmmmm yeah, that is way too heavy. Typically, your pack is supposed to only be 20% of your body weight. After a few adjustments, we were able to bring it down to 39 lbs (but that didn’t help much lol). To top it off, we were carrying ALL of our food for the whole trip without picking up at any stops. On day one, we hiked 13 miles, and I instantly regretted how heavy my pack was. However, the views were unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. Beautiful meadows, running streams, wildflowers, waterfalls, and huge glaciers that felt me in awe. We even crossed an ascending bridge that swayed as we walked across. I was borderline terrified. That night at South Puyallup camp, I was on the struggle bus. I had chills, body aches, and a fever. After some hot cocoa and a Backpacker’s Pantry freeze-dried meal, I started to feel a little better. I promise it gets better from here! That next morning, I ate a protein bar and geared up for our 17-mile day. The Wonderland Trail is known for having lots of elevation gain and loss. On day 2, we experienced that full throttle with almost a 6,000 ft elevation gain. Even though I was pretty gassed, we hiked through some beautiful lakes and mountain tops that became a highlight of the trip! By the time we reached camp at 8 pm, we were exhausted. The great thing about Mt. Rainier is that it takes a while for it to get dark which allowed us to hike later into the evening. For safety reasons, we decided to camp along the sandy banks of the river as it was too treacherous to cross. Because there were no bear poles, I used a rope to tie our bear bags to a nearby tree. I’m sure it was hilarious to watch because it took me way longer than it should have to figure out the contraption. That next morning, it was hard to walk and I began to question why I attempted this trail in the first place lol. Regardless, we put our crocs on and crossed the raging river. It was pretty scary but we found some safer places to cross as we walked upstream. Our day 3 adventure was already off to a good start. However, once I realized our next camp was called “Dick Creek Campground” I knew it would be a tough climb. The last 3 miles were completely uphill and we even had to take an extra detour which made our day 15 miles instead of 13. We quickly understood why it was called “Dick Creek.” Thankfully, we made it to camp by sunset and were able to wash off in a nearby waterfall which was pretty epic! That next morning “hiker hunger” really began to kick in. Every 10 min my stomach would growl no matter how much I ate. So naturally, I had to dig into my food stores for day 6. Rumor had it that there was a general store along the way so I was banking on picking up a few snacks later in the trip. That day, we began to approach the north side of the mountain so the temperatures became cooler and we hiked in altitude. I was in awe of the views as we got closer to the glaciers on Mt. Rainier. After 12 miles of hiking, we arrived at Sunrise Campground and saw so many deer prancing around our campsite! Seeing the beautiful deer and eating a warm meal made me forget about my aching feet just for a second. That next morning, we set out for the day, planning on hitting the Sunrise General Store on our way out. However, we were tragically disappointed when we found out that the general store is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays! SUCH a bummer. Thus, I had to start rationing my food in order to have enough for the next three days! Thankfully the beautiful glacier views numbed the hunger pains. That evening, we arrived at Summerland Campground which was my favorite campground of the whole trip! The sunset behind the mountains was unbeatable. The only downside was that it was FREEZING at night. The morning of day 6 was breathtaking. I woke up early to filter some water and got to witness the prettiest sunrise I have ever seen! This was also my favorite day of the whole Wonderland Trail. We passed through the “Panhandle” which was the highest point of the trail! Huge, rocky mountains towered over us as we navigated through some snow. As we walked down the mountain, we reached an area called “Indian Bar” which held the prettiest meadows, wildflowers, and running streams that I’ve ever seen! After grinding out 15 miles we made it to Maple Creek campground where we made some yummy food (everything tastes good at this point of the trail) and washed ourselves down in the nearby river. That night, we realized we only had 200 cal left for our last day so we began dreaming of the burgers we would eat later the next day. On day 7, we woke up HUNGRY and ready to complete the trail! My sister called day 7 a “death march” which couldn’t have been more accurate. We successfully made it back to Longmire where we started and the first thing I did was buy a jumbo bag of potato chips, peanut m&m’s, and a liter of chocolate milk at the general store. Let’s just say it was all gone in 2 min. That afternoon we drove back to Seattle before our flight the next morning. Of course, I proceeded to eat a burger, grilled cheese, french fries, lemonade, chips n’ salsa, a milkshake, and a DQ-dipped ice cream cone. Our journey to Mt Rainier and the Wonderland Trail was my favorite adventure to date!
