Click here for the regular blog post on the three segments making up my 2018 hike of the Wonderland.

Without repeating myself in this 2018 hike section, I’ll synopsize these two days; an incredible weather window that just couldn’t be passed up. In order to avoid involving anyone else for logistics, I decided to finish the trail by positioning myself via bike and looping back twice. I started at Longmire for the short day on Sunday, October 21st. This allowed me to hike the Wonderland from Box Canyon to Longmire. On day two I drove to Box Canyon, retrieved my steed from the forest, and biked to the north side of the park at the Fryingpan Creek trail head, which is just a few miles before White River. This allowed me to hike from Fryingpan Creek to Box Canyon, taking me past Summerland, over Panhandle Gap and the Cowlitz Divide via Indian Bar, then regaining my vehicle. Then it was just a matter of driving around to pick up my bike.

Details are in the blog post above, but this proved to be superbly enjoyable. Aside from easy access areas like Reflection Lakes and Summerland, I had the trail to myself. The latest I had done the Wonderland in the past was October 1-3 in the 90’s, also taking advantage of superb weather. As this week wears on the forecast calls for snow levels to drop to 4500 feet, so winter is afoot. It was a sublime experience to cover this section of the trail this late in the season without contending with snow (there were a few icy spots before Panhandle Gap from previous snowfall that had not melted out).

I’m putting this year’s Wonderland as my #31, unique in both the execution and timing for the three segments. There’s always something new to experience on this excursion, no matter how many times I’ve set foot to the trail over the years. Reference the map above for loop particulars, the total stats were 79 miles with 13,300’ of elevation gain/loss.

A full photo gallery of the Wonderland hikes can be seen here. Cheers!

*Alpenglow on Point 5920: Wonderland Trail above Indian Bar*

These posts will cover all the areas I'm visiting in the confines of Mt. Rainier National Park in celebration of 35 years exploring here, including new places with a smattering of old.

Taking advantage of this good weather for a combo hike/bike/trainer, I biked the Ipsut Creek trail and hiked to Moraine Park at 5700 feet. Looks like my planned Little Tahoma climb will be weathered out this coming weekend, so it was really nice to venture into parts not yet traveled in excellent weather. Every year I bike the Ipsut Creek trail and it seems every year the higher end becomes cobblier. Some sections are not kid friendly but I managed to stay peddling over a long expanse of good sized rocks. However, I knew this would be only a mild detriment after hiking all day; there's nothing like biking downhill for the last 5 miles at the end of a long session. At the lower Carbon crossing I ran into the NPS trail crew working on putting in the bridge, cutting trail across the slide area and doing general maintenance. After getting an email, part of my task today was to document blow downs and maintenance issues up to Moraine Park so they know what lies ahead. As it turns out, any blow downs were small and easily passed. However, I'm not sure what they're going to do for the crossing of Dick Creek as the creek has wandered past the end of the current bridge. I was able to position myself off side next to the bridge to leap to the far side and stay feet dry on the ascent, but I knew this would not work coming back as there was nothing safe to leap to (sure enough, I had to do a feet wet crossing here on the return).

*Log bridge over the Lower Carbon River crossing*

Just like last week's sojourn to Klapatche Park, once I hit 5100' there was continuous snow, in many places well over 6 feet deep. However, it was well consolidated and I only post holed about 4 times later in the afternoon on my return in my trail runners and shorts. Under somewhat hazy white skies, I found a small oasis to sit and have some lunch in the considerably thinner snow in upper Moraine Park, deciding there was no motivation to continue another 200 feet up to Mystic Pass on steep snow. From there it was almost all down hill and I finally saw someone else heading down the trail at the suspension bridge, where I stopped for another snack but eventually passed the older gentleman (70's?) in jeans, which he also biked in. Chafe city, but HYOH. I was rather pleased to see the crew had established the end points of the railing on the bridge, and also cut trail across the slide area in the time I had been higher. I made sure to send a detailed report to trail boss Zachary with pix this evening, I hope it helps them out.

Once I got to the lower parts of the trail I could let the steed run and soon found myself back at my vehicle at 5, making for a 25 mile day (10 on the bike) with 4400 feet of elevation, my legs telling me that was quite enough for this day's trainer in fabulous weather.

*Moraine Park sporting good snow coverage on June 6, 2018*