Wonderland Trail

What can I say but AWESOME!! After 8 days of hiking around thebase of Mt Rainier, circling the iconic WA volcano, I am back with hundreds of photos to share. Fortunately for you, I only uploaded just over 200.

Photos Here: Picasaweb Wonderland 2010

In case you have no clue what the Wonderland Trail entails...the basics. It's 93 miles, with 22,000 ft of elevation gain and loss - that's about 2.5 times the amount of elevation gain of a simple summit of the 14,411 ft tall mountain (for those thinking the math is off, base camp is at 6,000 ft). Also, when averaging elevation over the course of the trail, it works out to just under 500 ft/mile up or down, ALL THE TIME. That's a 9% grade, ALL THE TIME. The highways have extra passing lanes and runaway truck ramps when the grade gets to 6%. It is estimated by the Park Service that only 200-250 people complete the entire trail each year. I'd like to talk more about my experience than just the facts so, for more facts Wikipedia, Wonderland Trail article to the rescue.

I was fortunate enough to be joined on my hike by two good friends. Bryan Kirby, the best man at my wedding, flew all the way from Orlando to enjoy the journey. Bryan and I attempted the trail last year before he moved from Portland back home, but we were thwarted by record high temperatures and overloaded packs (thanks to not caching food at strategic locations) which lead to some of the worst bug conditions the mountain had seen in years, and overheated hikers like us, ultimately forcing us to pull off the trail after 63 miles in 4 days.

This time we were better prepared, and the weather gods smiled upon us granting us only mildly warm sun for all but two days, and cool overcast clouds on the days we were hiking into the high alpine regions. Although he hasn't posted anything on his blog yet, I'm sure he will soon. Bryan's blog HERE.

Gabe Nagmay was my other hiking partner. Gabe rode the train from Portland the day prior to our departure to join us with our adventure. Gabe's penchant for getting into mischief and his great eye for photography were welcome additions to a duo that spends 15 minutes every morning slathering sun screen on before breakfast. As you can see in the photo to the left, Bryan looks on disapprovingly as Gabe decides if he should jump the rapid instead of using the bridge.

Gabe also kept a journal of the events of the trip. His photos have been interlaced with mine on my Picasa Photo page, but his blog has all his originals, along with panoramic shots stitched together, and some other edits from his photo files. Gabe will be adding his journal entries as he types them over the next few days. Keep up to date with our daily lives by reading his entries... HERE.

Throughout our trip we were constantly surrounded by a cornucopia of wildflowers. There were more varieties than I cared to count, and the alpine meadows were so beautiful with the blooms, they seemingly overshadowed the towering mountain in the background. We were also fortunate enough to see several bears, two deer, and many a friendly small varmint varying from mice, to chipmunks, to pikas,

to marmots.

We constantly were asking each other what

our favorite point of the day/hike/trail was.

Our ultimate conclusion was that to pick one single item was a devil's dilemma - there were simply too many amazing views, places, and experiences to narrow the field to even 10. The hike was an amazing experience that I will not soon forget.

The only thing I will admit to is that by day 2 I wanted to quit the trail and go home - I was missing Grace something awful. Being away from her was quite possibly the hardest part of the trip. This does bring up one of the more interesting things we saw on the trail, a family of 6 with children ages 3, 5, 7, and 9 hiking the trail for the second year in a row. Grandpa joined them this year. We also fund out they put their experience from last year on YouTube. If you ever thought you couldn't do something because you have kids... think again and use this family as an inspiration. Their YouTube videos start HERE.