Wonderland Trail: Day 4

Day 4

Thursday, August 20

Projected mileage: 15.8 miles

Elevation gain/loss: 2400 feet gain/4800 feet loss

I am always amazed at how much better I feel after a good night's sleep. We woke up late-ish for us somewhere in the 6 a.m. hour as the bugs started making themselves known. I felt energetic and ready. Despite the buzzing squadrons of bloodsuckers, we took our time with breakfast and packing and getting ready to walk. Dan had a heel blister on one foot that decided to peel open when he checked on it. He taped it up with some neosporin and bandaids and duct tape followed by moleskin and more duct tape. The patch job took about 10 minutes to perform and lasted two days.

We started walking about 8:20 and almost immediately started a 2000 foot drop toward the South Mowich River. My left knee started complaining towards the end of this descent and didn't shut up for the rest of the trip. Apparently all this descending did not agree with it. We took a longish break before the South Mowich and got some fresh water and chatted with another hiker. He was heading for Mowich Lake and then he was out. He'd made it round the mountain in 7 days. He was sporting a pack even smaller and lighter than ours.

We arrived at the South Mowich about a quarter to 11 a.m. The river had a lot of sass and the log bridges seemed pretty low compared to the volume of water flowing. The last footbridge we crossed actually had the current washing against it and occasionally slapping over it. A tongue of water licked out and soaked my right foot as I crossed, almost like a reminder that we don't control the rivers any more than we control the glaciers or the rocks.

Then we started the "death march to Mowich." We started a 2000 foot climb on a wooded slope to reach Mowich Lake. As usual, the trees kept the air still which kept the air moist which made us feel sticky. Mowich Lake and it's campsites and parking lot greeted us at 1:40 in the afternoon. A real building for toilets. Trash cans. A parking lot. And a lake. We hopped into the lake and cooled off and ate some snacks. We soaked our feet. We drenched our shirts, as usual, for extra cooling on the hike. We got to lose our trash from the last two and a half days. We lounged around for almost an hour before we left the lake and headed up to Ipsut Pass.

The pictures of the trail descending from Ipsut pass can absolutely not give you an idea of how steeply the trail drops into this drainage. The trail had good tread but it was very steep. My knee started complaining again and proceeded to yell at me all the way to camp two hours later. After we dropped 2000 feet into the valley, the angle of the trail slacked off to a quite pleasant grade. We tracked along this until about 5:30 when we rolled into Ipsut Creek camp.

(Castle Rock)

Ipsut Creek camp is a little odd. It used to be a car camp until a big storm washed out the road just past the bridge and (maybe at the same time) a sinkhole took down the stone building used by the rangers. The camp still has post for garbage cans with the animal proof lids, but no actual garbage cans. Water faucets sprout out of the ground in a few places but they don't give any water when the handles turn. The pit toilet building is fully stocked with toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Weeds are taking over the parking lot. Moss grows on some of the former amenities of the park. It's creepy. Dan said he got the heebie jeebies here.

We did play some rummy. And we did get to sit at an actual table to eat our dinner. Dan ate two mountain house meals (about 1600 calories for those of you at home) because he felt like he was running low on energy. We each had two good pulls from Jason's flask and finished off the Tuaca he brought.

Then we sacked out early.