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                       Day 5
Up early again, by 6:00am. Have breakfast, and on the trail by 8:50am. On our way out, we stop at the creek to fill up with water, and with Ed’s binoculars, we are able to see two climbing parties on the Mountain!!! I try to get some video of them, as the camcorder has a much better zoom than the cameras. Got a short day today, going just to Indian Bar. Start out the morning with a climb right away, to Panhandle Gap. Just before we reach Panhandle Gap, the terrain reminds me of a moonscape, very barren, with some snow fields. Strange looking piles of rock left laying around, like tailings from a mine. Finally, we reach Panhandle Gap. Wow!! What a view! Can see Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood in the distance, as well as the valley that will turn into Ohanapecosh Park & Indian Bar. It’s like being on top of the world; everything is laid out before us. Pretty windy here, too, and there is a couple of guys that get here before us, and they start digging out their jackets, it’s that cool…We descend down, doing a lot of gaping and picture taking as we go. Not long into this descent, we run across a group of people that point out our first Mountain Goat sighting. Very cool, as I have never seen Mountain Goats in the wild before. They are possibly 200 to 250 yards away, so it takes a pair of binoculars to really see them well, we try taking pictures and video, but…Hard really to see if pictures will turn out or not…There was a small group of 5 or 6, and they had some kid’s with them. Continued on down the trail, and the views that kept coming were nothing short of spectacular, Ohanapecosh Park to our left, the drainage into the Ohanapecosh River valley, which runs through Indian Bar to our right, and we are walking down the middle of them, on a narrow ridgeline that divides the two. Just incredible!!! To our left, down in the park, we can hear the marmots whistling, and we can make out another group of goats, bedded down by the waterfall that cascades down from the cliffs above. Believe the name of the creek is Boulder creek. The Ohanapecosh Glacier has several huge waterfalls running down the side of the mountain, to form the headwaters of the Ohanapecosh River. Just so much to see and experience, I feel transfixed by the massive views around me, making it hard for me to leave the area. But, I also felt the excitement of knowing that there was still more to see this day, so we hesitantly moved on. As we continued down the ridgeline, we hit the tree line again, and found and snacked on some tasty blueberries, these were very sweet, and good. Finally, we get good views of Indian Bar, and the rock shelter there. It was eye candy of the most extraordinaire!! A master painter could not have evoked a more beautiful and picture perfect scene if he had tried! Finally, we tread the ground at Indian Bar, and it is everything that I had hoped for, and more than I could possibly have dreamed. Big, no, huge views everywhere. I try, but fail to find the right words to describe this little piece of heaven. I took lots of pictures, and video, but they too, will fall miserably short of trying to capture exactly the presence of this place. Wauhaukaupauken Falls is pretty, running right under the bridge that separates the shelter from the other camp sites. We try to get lower so that we can get a better picture of them from below, but fail to find a way down that doesn’t include riding the rapids. This time, we are the first into camp on the individual sites, so we get our pick, and choose site #1. It’s a little tight for two tents, but we make do. Spend most of the day down by the falls, and Ohanapecosh River. I feel so dirty from sweat and trail dust, I decide to fill my collapsible 4 liter jug with water, and allow it to heat in the midday sun so that I can get a shower, but, as I’m filling the jug, much to my delight and surprise, I discover that the small stream that has meandered out of the meadow, to join the river at the waterfall, is plenty warm enough for me to bathe in! And, not only that, as it forms a small 8 foot waterfall, it pours into a smooth, hollow depression right next to the falls, like a ready made bathtub!!! Oh, man, this felt so good!!! I rinse myself off, and then just sit there and soak for about ten minutes. After my refreshing bath, I crawl up onto the smooth rocks next to the river to allow the sun to dry my wet clothes, and laundry, and warm me up in the process. Man, that felt nice! I finally feel clean again! I try to talk Ed and Russ into trying it, but, I couldn’t convince them that even though it was snow melt, it really was warm! 5 or 6 fighter jets fly overhead in formation, surprising us. Later that afternoon, after getting dry, we check out the shelter, and notice that several people had signed their names over the walls and rocks on the inside. Noticed one signature was from Aug, 1940. 65 years ago…Wonder if the person is still alive? So far, this is the most beautiful place I’ve seen on the mountain. The huge views, meadows, waterfalls, alpine forests, and looming mountains make for a truly spectacular setting. I find it hard to believe that there could be very many places more beautiful than this place on the face of the earth. Right before dusk, we made another trip down to the river, and meadow, and spotted a group of 5 deer. A 3 point, a forked horn, and a spike, with 2 does. We watched them for 20 or 30 minutes, and they played as they foraged, chasing each other, jumping around, and the males sparring with each other, very cool to see. Played dice tonight again, and I finally won one! Fog is starting to roll in, thicker and thicker, and we’re concerned that we won’t be able to see the views afforded by the Cowlitz Divide in the morning! Lord willing, it will burn off early in the morning.

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                        Day 6
Yep, started off pretty foggy this morning, as we’re up by 5:30am this morning, and everything is wet, very heavy mist. Ed saw an Elk on his way to the bathroom. He was the only one to see it, and it seemed fitting, as it was his 34^th birthday today!!! What a way to spend your birthday!!! By the time we were ready to leave, fog is becoming patchier, a good sign. We take off for the Cowlitz Divide at 8:00 this morning, today will be mostly downhill, a 10 mile day, but it starts out with a good uphill climb. Doesn’t take long, and we are above the fog! And, the mountain is beautiful!! Pretty trail as we make our bid for the high spot on the divide. We scare up a couple of grouse that were nesting in a bush beside the trail, Russ manages to get a picture of the hen. We reach the top, and are rewarded with a 360 degree, panoramic view of the entire region. It’s awesome! We end up taking lot’s of pictures here of the surrounding area. The trail continues down a narrow ridge line, with constant views. Very pretty through here, really enjoyed it, especially as it’s a downhill that’s not a knee burner, a very nice walk. Found more tasty blueberries through here, stop momentarily to munch. Trail continues down switchbacks in old growth forest to Stevens Canyon and Nickel Creek campground. There are some real giants in here. Reach Box Canyon, stop there to use the facilities, and wash hands under running water with soap!! Trail continues to ramble through forest, and I found a small patch of wild strawberries in a large (Very tall) stand of Bracken ferns. I made sure none of them went to waste while Ed and Russ continued walking. Once I caught up to them, I informed them that they had missed out on a treat, naturally…Reach Maple creek campground around 2:15pm, and we immediately set up or wet gear to dry. Take another snooze. Since I’m down to my last clean shirt, I take a little bath (with out getting all the way in, the water is freezing here!), and wash my shirt. Sat around in the sun trying to dry. Ended up taking my little Siesta in my wet shirt, hey, couldn’t wait forever you know! Gave new meaning to the term, “Wash and Wear”…Biting black flies are terrible here. We sit around for over a half hour, slapping flies, looking to the world as if we have some nervous disorder, or are seriously into some strange form of self-flagellation…Yes, we brought insect repellant, but it seemed to be only marginally effective against our present tormentors, and after several days of sweating the stuff off, having it run into or around your mouth where you could taste it, and having the residue on your hands for you to taste with your food, or smell, I think we resigned ourselves to the slapping technique as being the better of two evils…Besides, there was some grim satisfaction to having the little suckers piled up dead at your feet, the one with the biggest pile wins!!! Russ held the record, having swatted 4 at once! I win another game of dice!!! In bed by 9:00pm, if nothing else, once in the tent, we are mercifully away from the little bloodsuckers…

                   Day 7
Up by 5:30am, on the trail by 7:50am, and we start up through Steven’s Canyon. Lots of brush, makes it hard to use trekking poles. A few views of the bridge above, and the tunnel. Then, surprisingly, a few well forested areas, then back into the brush as we start our climb out of Steven’s Canyon. It just becomes one long trudge out of the canyon, and we just want it to be over! Nothing really to look at, as you are concealed by brush and trees most of the way up. I’m sweating like crazy, just running off of me in streamlets…We only stop twice, once to take a picture of a falls, and the other time to drink some much needed fluids. I just want to get out of here!!! Finally, we do, and as we level out, we reach Louise Lake, and decide to take a quick lunch break here. Very pretty, nice place to stop and take a break. On to Reflection Lakes at the top! A slight wind has picked up, and is rippling the water, so we don’t get the picture perfect reflection that we were hoping for, but the mountain is still visible in the water…We run into a couple of bikers from Kentucky out here for the first time, and we stop and talk with them for quite awhile, they had lots of questions. They seem very impressed with the scale of the Mountain, and with what we are doing. In their own words, “We ain’t got nothing like this in Kentucky!!” At first, they seemed pretty surprised that we were attempting to go all the way around the mountain. They take a picture of us, and before we leave, we convince them that they should go and see Sunrise! On to Cougar Rock Campground for us…Nice trail downhill through forest, some giants here also. Pass several waterfalls, get a nice picture of one right before Carter Falls, as it’s too hard to get a good picture of Carter Falls, too many tree branches in the way. Cross the Nisqually River, lots and lots of day hikers here, milling about. Finally, reach our campsite around 1:00pm, and Russ tells us that he won’t be going on. We’re very sorry to see him go, but he wanted to go to his wife’s 20^th class reunion, it was important. I thought that commendable, that he would do that for his wife, and we understood, but still, we will miss him. We’ve already experienced so much together. Sally, Sandy, and Shannon arrive around 4:45pm, very happy to see them, and not just for the food, either!! After getting all of our supplies together, we go to the Henry M. Jackson Visitor center for a hot shower!!!! Ahh, boy did that feel great, I’m clean again!! We also eat at the Paradise Inn, very fancy, and I have a Baron of Beef. Tasty, and the wild huckleberry ice cream afterwards just finishes the whole thing off. Back at camp, Sandy had made a chocolate cake to celebrate Ed’s 34^th birthday, and we eat that under headlamp light…They stay until 9:30, or so, and then head back down…

                  Day 8
Up at 6:00am, on the trail by 8:20am. Only 5.4 miles today, so we are in no real rush. Start a gradual climb in forest, then starts to really climb as soon as we get to Rampart Ridge, and it doesn’t stop until we get on top. 1000ft climb. Once on top, we’re still in forest. Start descending to Kautz Creek, get a quick glimpse of mountain, and Pyramid Peak. Not much to look at here. Right after the creek crossing, we notice a tree that has a large, rounded chunk taken out of it, about 12 feet off of the ground! Only thing we can figure did that, was during one of the torrents coming down Kautz creek from a glacial outburst, it launched a boulder out of the creek bed, and it hit this tree! The really amazing thing about all of this was the fact that this tree is at least 30 or 40 feet above the creek bed on the bank, and maybe 20 to 30 feet back from the edge!! Man, that rock had to really have been launched to have done that!!! On to Pyramid Creek camp. Stop for a bit at Pyramid Creek, good water here. Continue up again, another 1000ft climb, or so, to Devil’s Dream camp. Along the way, we pass a couple of rangers by a stream, and they tell us that they are looking for a lost hiker, and that’s what all of the helicopter’s flying around is all about. We had wondered what all of the commotion was for. They show us his picture, and ask if we’ve seen him, and we hadn’t…We cross some small streams, about 25 minutes before we reach Devil’s Dream camp, it’s our first dry camp, as the local stream has dried up. We reach camp around 12:20pm. After setting up camp at site #5, we put all of our water bottles in an empty pack, and Ed carts them up to Squaw Lake, a place we had heard we could get water from, another .5 mile further up the trail. Just beyond the lake, is a small stream that feeds Squaw Lake, and the water is good. Once we make it back to camp, we nap. Around 3:00pm, I hear other voices in camp. We were the first ones here, so once again, we got first choice of sites. I go over to one of the other campsites, and introduce myself, meeting Mike and his son and daughter, who are from Ohio. Told him about the water situation, and where to find it, and we traded notes that I had penciled in on my map. He was 59, and had an interesting story to tell. He’d been in the military, stationed out here in 1977, and remembered Mount Rainier, so, he decided this year to tackle the Wonderland with his son and daughter, Brad and Brittany, and so, they jumped on a plane, and headed out west! Stopped at REI, and Mike told them what he had in mind, and they outfitted him with everything that they felt they would need. Well, after a few days on the trail, he decided they were carrying more stuff than they really needed, like an $80 rain jacket that he didn’t think they would need, so they were looking to jettison some stuff. Funny how a few days on the trail will make you feel that way…Anyway, when they got to Longmire, he was saying that he just wanted to get this brand new, never been used, $80 jacket mailed back to Ohio…Bereft of options, he started approaching people in the parking lot at Longmire, asking them if, for 50 bucks, they would be so kind as to mail this jacket home for him…He said he got a lot of blank stares from people. In his words, “You know, after 3 days on the trail, I stink, my face is scruffy with growth, and people just would shake their heads and walk away in disgust.”…yeah, I had to admit, we certainly didn’t look or smell like anything you could trust anymore…Finally, he said that a couple of women agreed to do it for him, a couple of complete strangers, took his money and jacket, and said they would mail it for him…Desperation can make us do some funny things sometimes…I wonder if he ever got that jacket back? I told him about the bridge being out at the South Mowich River crossing, and he swore, and then said that “they were in some trouble now”, and sounded as if he was ready to quit. I urged him not to quit, as long as the knees and back would hold out!! I was impressed, him just deciding to come out here and hike this trail; it’s not exactly the easiest one around, with all of the elevation gain!!! My prayers are with him and his family, hope he sticks it out!!!
Some thoughts so far: After day 6, my legs and lungs seem stronger, not relying on Ibuprofen as much, and my far sight has greatly improved!!! I noticed this after about day 4, that it seemed I could see to the horizon as sharply as I did when I was young. I normally have about 20/30 vision now, don’t need glasses, but I notice normally, that things far off in the distance seem a little blurry or fuzzy…Now, though, everything seems so sharp and focused!! Taste and smell, have also been sharpened it seems, from days out here in the wilds. A list of the people and where they come from that we’ve had the pleasure of meeting out here on the trail, in the usual Wonderlander’s greeting…”Hi, how are you? What day are you on?” “What’s the water situation” (if they have come from the west side). The places to date that people hail from, are, Idaho, Eastern Washington, Western Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, California, Chicago, Florida, Germany, and Ireland. That’s to date. Also, taking today as an example, some of the long distance trudges uphill…They leave you sweating, and hurting, and you ask yourself, “What am I doing here, why am I doing this? I could be home right now, warm, cozy, doing some serious sofa surfin’”…Get to camp, though, and the worries and discomfort experienced on the trail seem to just melt away…
I won 3 dice games today, count em’, 3!!! Ed won 1. Fell in to bed around 8:30pm tonight, we plan on making a side trip to Mirror lake tomorrow, and, that mileage added onto our already big day, will make the days mileage around 11.5 to 12 miles…Will need to get up and out early. I think I mentioned it before, but time is so stretched out on the trail, it hits home again tonight. 2 days ago, seems a week ago. Eleven o’clock last night I hear the strangest bird call I’ve ever heard before. Can’t describe it, just very strange and foreign sounding, as if it had been startled out of sleep by something. Not scary, just strange. Also, could hear boulders clacking together most of the night. Didn’t sleep well here…

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                   Day 9
Knew we had a big day, so we were up by 5:30am, out of camp by 7:30am. Walked through Squaw Lake area again, very pretty, and once we get to the stream, we fill up. Then, short climb up to Indian Henry’s Hunting Grounds. Also, very pretty here, nice rolling meadows through alpine trees. We stop at the ranger station and talk to the Ranger for a few minutes, curious about the water situation. From her, the water sources don’t sound as bad as we had been led to believe coming around to the West side. From here, we walk the short distance to the turn-off for Mirror lakes, our side trip for today, and we are very glad that we did it. The water was as smooth as glass, not a ripple evident, and get a great picture of the mountain reflected on the waters surface. Also, very scenic around here, the camera gets a work-out. From Indian Henry’s, descend down to Tahoma Creek, and cross the big suspension bridge. Cool bridge, really rocks and rolls, a couple of times, as I’m trying to film what it’s like crossing it, the bridge tilts to one side so radically, I feel as if I’m going to be pitched over the side, and have to grab quickly for the hand rail!!! Once across the bridge, then it’s up, up, and up to get around Emerald Ridge, nice pull here…Trail mostly in tree cover, until getting close to the leading edge of ridge, and then, trail gets very rocky, and loose. When you finally get above the tree line, it really opens up, with great views of the mountain, and it’s very rocky and barren here. Good views of Glacier Island, also. As we stop to take pictures, and video, we hear this extremely loud chirruping sound, echoing off of the cliff face of Emerald Ridge…What is that noise that is so loud? It’s flying grasshoppers! I’m gonna take a stab at why they named it “Emerald Ridge”…The leading cliff face of Emerald Ridge is green! We finally reach the saddle, signifying the top of this climb! From here, we can see the South Puyallup River running out of the Tahoma Glacier. Impressive!!! Big views here. Can also see the Sunset Amphitheatre, and St. Andrews Rock. Just so much to see, and we try to video tape a panoramic scene, in between being bitten by horse flies!!! Ouch! These little buggers hurt!!! While I’m trying to tape, Ed becomes my defender, swatting them away, as I am defenseless while trying to video tape our surroundings. I swear, that the same horseflies circle us like buzzards all the way to Klapatche Park! I am beginning to discern the differences in their relentless buzzing, assigning individual characteristics to each one from the sound of their buzz, and the glint of light off their reflective bodies. Some of them are actually kind of pretty, if you could look beyond their predatory habits. I just want to kill them all!!! We travel down the ridgeline, with our horse fly entourage, to the South Puyallup River crossing. Nice bridge here. Man, is the water boiling, as it rages down river. Across the river, begins another long uphill trudge, all the way to St. Andrews Park. This is a long, hot, trudge to the top. Trail crew has been busy here, a lot of brush clearing has been done. The clear spots make for good views, but also places for the hot afternoon sun to get a chance to broil us. There continues to be trees for shade in places, and where the trees are not present, there is loose, smaller rock on the trail. As we finally hit the top of the ridgeline, ran into a moraine field, and then more big views of canyons and meadows. Then, as we come out by Aurora Peak, WOW!!! Huge view of the North Puyallup, boiling down from the Puyallup Glacier, into the North Puyallup River canyon. From our distance, it looks like close to a mile away, at least, but you can hear it roar as it heads in a hurry down the mountain side. By now, I’m starting to get tired. Been a long day already, and we’re still not in camp yet. Soon, after another “Stairmaster”, we reach St. Andrews Lake. “Stairmaster” is the name we give to the steps trail crews have made in the trail, using logs as little berms, creating a stairs of sorts, usually on a steep uphill, or downhill, and they usually carry on for 10 or more steps in a row, giving you that nice burn in your quads… St. Andrews Lake will be our drinking water for the day, as Klapatche Park is another dry camp. Aurora Lake is nothing but a large mud puddle now. While we’re filling up our water bottles from the lake, there is a shore bird not 25 feet away from us, wading close to shore, and, all of a sudden, we hear this loud “WOOOSH!” in the water close to us, and looking up, startled, we see this hawk swoop down, hitting the water, as he made an attempt at grabbing the little shore bird! It missed, and the loud noise we heard was it’s wings and feet hitting the water when it dove in…It made me jump, wasn’t expecting that! Of course, I think the little bird was more dazed than I, as it kind of wanders aimlessly for a few moments, surprised to be alive, I think. First time I’ve ever seen an expression of bewildered surprise on a bird before! We reached Klapatche Park by 5:10pm, it’s been a long day. About 9 ½ hours worth of hiking. We get a good site here, only one other group is here before us. We have run into them earlier on the trail, at Nickel creek.( I think they are the group that I felt was a captive audience while I was setting on the throne!) We talk for awhile, and find out that they, too, are headed for Golden Lakes tomorrow. 3 of us decide to see if we can see Golden Lakes from here, as according to Bette Filley’s book, “The Wonderland Trail”, we should be able to see them like “golden coins” from our sites. Nope! Never see them, but, when the sun goes down, we can see the “golden” lights of what appears to be Tacoma in the distance!! We sit out front of camp, on the edge of the dust bowl that used to be Aurora Lake, and wait for the sun to set on the mountain, get good pictures of Mt. Rainier at sunset. Right about 8:30pm, we see the family from Ohio come down the trail into camp! They just beat the sun setting! And, Brad from Bonney Lake, and his 12 year old son, has been walking with them. They decided to come the distance to Klapatche Park, instead of stopping at South Puyallup camp. Luckily for them, there is the one site left, and they camp together there. We watch the sunset from our site tonight, and then turn in at 9:10pm. A final note on this camp…Very nice, actually, it has an outhouse, but…The biting black flies are bad here, and as soon as they are done with us, then the mosquitoes come out to feast. It’s a pleasure to be inside the tent, away from our tormentors…

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                   Day 10
Wow!! Only 1 more day…Up at 5:30, out of camp by 7:45am. Head down into the North Puyallup River valley. Some good views here of the North Puyallup river running down the side of the mountain. Also, there are some really cool rock formations here, which, because of the way the morning light is, I never really got a good picture of them. One huge rock formation, looked like something the Romans might have built, sheer on all sides, with a round dome on top, like the Coliseum with a roof!!! You could almost envision the columns holding it up, it also reminded me of the place that Thomas Jefferson built, Monticello, only on a grand scale!!! Very cool, I can’t believe that my map does not have a name for it. On this side of the river, trail really drops down, and there is a lot of blow down of old growth timber. Trail crews have been busy here, too, lots of huge trees to cut up. Once across the river, we start ascending, gradually for awhile, through forest. One note: There are man-made rock walls on either side of the river, the one on the north side opens and curves toward the river, making it look as if there was a road with a bridge here once. After a mile or so, the trail gets steeper, and remains that way all the way to the area that is, (or looks to be) an old burn site. No trees, lots of bear grass, and the trees that are here, are silver from being burned a long time ago. Then, starts to get less steep, but still on an uphill grade, as I’m sweating buckets again! There are two streams of note on the map, and we are hoping to get water from them. The 1^st one, about 4.5 to 5 miles from Klapatche Park, had water, and two bridges close to each other, the 2^nd one did not. Good thing we decided to get water from the 1^st one. After the burn on the ridgeline, we enter Sunset Park. Pretty meadows, smaller than we’ve been seeing, interspersed with alpine trees, blueberries, heather, etc. A nice walk, as it just meanders through the area. We reach Golden Lakes around 12:00pm. Also very nice here, we get here just in time for some excitement. The Forest Service is helicoptering supplies off of the campsite right next to us, not more than 30 feet away, so I get some good video of the helicopter in action. They have a long tow line hanging down from the belly of the copter, and a guy on the ground hooks up the cable to their gear, and they lift it away. They do this twice while we are here. Guess they are doing some kind of water analysis testing of the high lakes. This is one cool camp!!! The guys that were there at Klapatche camp, well, they got up early and beat us to this camp, and, as they got here early enough, decided if they could make arrangements with the rangers here, they would go on to the South Mowich camp, so that their last day wouldn’t be so long…They are able to make the arrangements necessary, so, we bid them good-bye, and we take the spot that they were at. We must be close to 450ft straight above the largest of the Golden lakes, like an Eagles roost, and as I’m writing this, I’m looking down over it. If I climb just a little higher, to a look-out spot above our site, I get a good view of the mountain. Can see Sunset Ridge, and Liberty Ridge. Looks as if I can also see parts of Spray Park from here, but I’m not certain. Then, after camp is set up, down to the lake for a swim, and a clothes wash! Ahhhh….It is deep, and after you get used to the water temperature, it is soooo refreshing!!! I swim around for awhile, and then rinse all of the sweat and salt off of my body and hair, along with the accumulated trail grime. Ed takes some convincing, but he finally takes the plunge, and admits that it was all worth it!!! We wash our stinky clothes, and feel clean again. Sit in the sun to dry out a little, which also feels good, sunning ourselves in the warm sun, then, once we are clean and dry, its nap time again. Around 3:00pm, or so, the Ohioans show up, and they do the same thing, swim, wash, and lay around in the sun…Very relaxing. Watched a great sunset tonight, it was awesome!!! Tried our best to capture the event on camera and video, have to wait to get home to see how it all turned out! Played a final game of dice, Ed won 1. 9:00pm, and it’s time for bed. Tomorrow, we hike out!

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                  Day 11
Up by 5:30am, and after a water re-fill at the lake, on the trail by 8:15am. I took quite a spill at the lake, we were filling up by walking out on a log that was sticking out into the lake, allowing us to get water from further out, instead of close to the banks, where sediment was easily kicked up, and, mixing mud and water on that log, my feet flew out from under me, and having the water filter in my hands, I had no way to break my fall other than with the back of my head, and my backside, right onto the log! Luckily, the only thing that was injured was my pride. But, hey, I didn’t fall in the water, at least! Day begins nice again; we’ve had absolutely outstanding weather the entire trek!!! As we pass a few of the Golden Lakes, the trail is a nice stroll, gently rolling through berry bushes, and meadows, until we hit more forest. Then, we start to enter into another burn area, with lots of silver snags, and bear grass, just like yesterday. We traverse the side of the hill for awhile. Before long, we come upon the Ohioans!! They surprised us, the last few days we’ve always beat them out of camp, today though, they were on the trail before us! We stop and talk for awhile, and as we pass them, I shake each of their hands, wish them well, and tell them not to forget us here in Washington! They were all very nice people. They take our picture, so I guess now they won’t forget us! The trail descends gradually through old growth. Well, at least to us it seems gradual, as we are descending, and not having to trudge uphill. As we get closer to the river, we start to pass people, 2 different couples, and they warn us. “Oh, yeah, be sure and get to the river early, the bridge is still out, and the water’s going to rise later!” The same mantra that we’ve heard the whole time we’ve been on the trail, the South Mowich river crossing is out!!! We assure them that we are indeed hurrying to get to the river. About 5 or 10 minutes before we get to the river, we hear what sounds like a chain saw roaring, and we think, “Could this be a trail crew fixing the bridge?” We reach the river crossing by 10:30am, and sure enough!! There’s a crew, working on getting the bridge in. We walk slowly over to where they are working, staring expectantly, and the guy with hip waders comes over and tells us that if we just wait a few minutes, they’ll have the bridge in and we won’t have to get our feet wet! We assure him that those few minutes will be no problem for us at all…Talk about your perfect timing!!! 11 days on the trail, we’ve been told the bridge was out, and within 5 minutes of us getting to this spot on the whole trail, the bridge is in….We didn’t have to take off our boots, and as we crossed the bridge, we thanked them all profusely. Once again, the Lord knew what time we would be there at that crossing, thank you, Lord!!! The chain saw sound was from a gas powered come-along that the crew used to pull the bridge back into place across the river. Once across, we stopped for a couple minutes to eat a power bar, and drink up, as we prepared for our final climb up the north side of the river. As we are crossing the river valley, we walk through very cool rain forest, and cross the North Mowich River. Once across the river, we head up. It seems gradual enough, it’s just a constant up. We stop every 20 minutes or so, just a pause to get some fluids in, I can’t drink out of the water bottle unless we stop. As we neared the top, we cross Crater Creek, which runs out of Lake Mowich. We’d been told earlier on in our adventure, that Crater Creek was dry! I found that hard to believe, and now I can see that the people that told us that were probably confused…Most of the hike on this side of the river was through old growth forest, with an occasional glimpse of the mountain. By 1:10pm, we reached the top!!! We made it!!! We are, of course, elated! What began 11 days ago from this spot, is now completed. It’s been a dream of mine now for 2 years, and finally, I’ve achieved my dream. We made it the whole way without having to break out the rain gear. I prayed before I even picked the days that we would hike, that God would pick the best days for weather for us, and it was perfect!!! The following day, after we got home? It rained. I felt kind of sorry for the guys from Ohio, as they were still on the trail, and the rain jacket was on it’s way back to Ohio…So many memories, even as I re-read what I scribbled in my note book while on the trail, it brings back so many memories…Will I ever do the whole thing again? Probably not, but there were some sections that I definitely fell in love with, that I would like to see again.

When we get home, and I stepped in the front door, I had the oddest sensation that it wasn’t my home! Clean hardwood floors, and carpet!! Real, soft, furniture!! (Which I didn’t sit in until I had showered!) It took a while, before that sensation left me, I felt like an interloper, like I didn’t belong here…I’m sore, and not anxious to do anything remotely strenuous for a few days, and I look forward to being inside for the next couple, as I did miss my computer!! And, I have a nice, big project to do, getting all of the pictures catalogued, videos put together so that I can make my own movie of our Wonderland Experience. I’m also going to try and do a website, to document our trip. I have never attempted something like that before, hope I manage it!

It’s good to be home, and get back into a routine, but, the experiences on the trail will be with me for the rest of my life, and I will always look back upon my time on the Wonderland as some of the best moments of my life.