Bad News from Mount Rainier.

A couple of weeks ago, the blogging came to a halt.  Some of that had to do with the family schedule over the last two weeks, but some of that came from a simple sentence posted by the park rangers on the Mount Rainier web site:

"Trying to book an entire Wonderland Trail trip, or a large section of it, from mid-July until mid-September is near impossible at this point."

Apparently,reservations start getting sent to the Wilderness Information Center starting in Mid-March, and one ranger goes through the applications starting on April 1st.  This year, by the beginning of May, over 500 applications have been processed and a number of backcountry campgrounds are full.  (Given that there's only about 8 sites per campground, it doesn't take long.) 

So, this has put me into a bit of a funk, which helps to explain the lack of posting.  Now, I have to figure out
what's next for the Wonderland Goal.  The close proximity of Mount Rainier makes it possible to do the trail in multiple segments.  In fact, Bette Filley suggests that the best way to do the Trail is in 10 one to two day chunks.  You don't have to carry as much and you have some time to recuperate.

We'll see how this all works out. 

My First Reference Book.

I've mentioned Bette Filley's Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail encircling Mount Rainer and Rick Curtis' Backpackers' Field Manual, but long before I got those books, I had another book that started it all.  It's hard to remember, but I believe that it started out when Gail and I were browsing some National Park bookstore, and I saw this book I couldn't resist:  Allen and Mike's Really Cook Backpackin' Book: Traveling and camping sklls for a wilderness environment! by Allen O'Bannon and illustrations by Mike Clelland.  I've had it so long, I've just found it again.  In the bookshelf, of all places! 

The name kind of gives you an idea of the flavor of this book.  Part tongue in cheek, part lessons learned, part redneck backpacking, this book is short and sweet and gives you a whole lot of info crammed into 155 pages.  Along with a few laughs.

For instance, the section about packing your backpack basically says to eschew the fancy packing sacks and compression bags, they just add weight.  Treat your backpack like a big bag and shove stuff into it.  No one cares about wrinkles on the trail.  So, my task is to compare all the different advice and figure out what I want to do for myself.

Winter Storm

We're spending the holidays on the Outer Banks in North Carolina, which is on the outskirts of the "Blizzard of 2010", so any training will have to consist of going up and down two flights of stairs.  We did manage to get outside and walk a few hundred feet up the beach before we couldn't feel our extremities.

So, I've been reading Bette's book about the trail to get more familiar.  She mentioned a method of estimating effort that I hadn't heard before.  The hiking center at Longmire suggests that you add a mile for every 1,000 foot elevation gain and add half a mile for every 1000 foot elevation loss.  Thus, the typical Longmire to Devil's Dream is 5.9 miles and 2,500 foot elevation gain, basically equivalent to a 8.4 mile hike.  Although it doesn't begin to estimate the amount of effort required, it is a good start to give me an idea how much stamina I'll need to have from a training standpoint.

As part of the planning, I have to plan a route to take.  Given that it'll change over time and depending on capacity of the campsites, I'll be updating my Itinerary frequently.  

Gear

One of the facts of life of walking around for 10-15 days outside of civilization is that you have to carry everything you want on your back.  Food, shelter, emergency supplies, etc, all have to be on your back.  I've been gradually collecting items for the last couple of years; I took a backpack to Europe, I picked up a sleeping bag for 5 bucks at on clearance at a big box store, I got a couple of presents of things like a camp stove and filter pump, and have been collecting things for a couple of years.

Backpacker magazine has a pretty comprehensive list of gear required in the Backpacker 101 section on their web site.  Bette has one in her Wonderland Trail book.  I've even got a a book which gives a tongue and cheek guide to backpacking around here somewhere.  Based on what I see so far, what to take is as much a personal decision as there are backpackers.

The other thing that I'm a bit wary about is the different web sites which may or may not have a financial interest in the products that they're recommending.  Given that everything on the web is based on advertising revenue, having someone recommend a particular brand of product raises a few red flags.  I hope that anyone reading this will do their own due diligence if I end up recommending a certain product.

One of the pages that I will be working on during this blog is my gear list.  I'm sure it'll be interesting to see how it evolves. 

Wonderland Trail

I've been talking about this journey for awhile before I decided to do it, and my in-laws bought me the bible about the Wonderland Trail:  Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail encircling Mount Rainier by Bette Filley.  First written in 1969, the most recent edition was published in 2006.  For anyone contemplating this journey, this is the book to get. 

The Wonderland Trail is a 92.2 mile trail that encircles Mount Rainier.  Given that this is mountain country, the other key item to note is the elevation gain.  Since it's circle, there really isn't any elevation gain, but looking at the Elevation profile, this is no stroll in the park.  Beginning at 2780 feet (824m), a hiker goes over 5000 feet (1525m) seven times and over 6000 feet (1830m) twice.  According to Bette, hiking all the way around is the equivalent of climbing a 22,786 foot (7000m) mountain. 

Being a circle, there really isn't a beginning or an end,  Longmire being the start of the trail.  Going counter clockwise, the trail parallels the park road along the southern part of the park along the Paradise river and through Steven's Canyon.  Turning north at Box Canyon, it follows the ridge of the Cowlitz divide and reaches its highest elevation of 6800 feet (2087m) at Panhandle Gap.  If follows Fryingpan Creek down to the White River, where you begin to turn westward again towards Sunrise. 

Heading westward, the trail goes through the least visited areas of the park, those parts that are not accessible via road.  Past Mystic Lake, down the Carbon River valley leads you to Ipsut Creek.  The final push takes the trail past Mowich Lake and southward across many ridges back to Longmire. 

Looking at the elevation map and the park map, you may begin to think that I'm crazy.  I share that opinion sometimes as well, however, there's only one way to do this, and that's on foot.  

Mount Rainier National Park Map