Our first day saw us dropped off at the Longmire Rangers Station by our friends Kurt, Tracy and their son Nick.
We started up the trail around 2pm that day and had about 6 miles to go until our first campsite at Devils Dream. The day was pretty chilly and had a low cloud ceiling so we didn't get any real views of the mountain that day. The trail was very different hiking than either Sarah and I are use to. The west side of the mountain is very wet, almost a rain forest. Everything was covered in moss, there we more waterfalls that I can even begin to remember and the trees were HUGE.
The second day the weather started to improve a bit and we were able to get our first real glimpse of the Rainier summit. We also got our first up close view of one of the glaciers. At first we both thought that we were looking at a former mudslide, but then we realized that near the bottom, all glaciers are covered in dirt and rocks, and you can't even see the ice.
The second day we ended up doing 9.8 miles to the Klapatche Park next to Klapatche Lake.
On the morning of Day 3 we were greeted with a fantastic, crystal clear view of the summit, perfectly reflected in the lake. What a great scene to brush your teeth to
On day three we only had to do 7.8 miles to Golden Lakes. It was a pretty easy hike past North PuyallupRiver which had a rather large waterfall for us to relax next to for lunch.
About 1.5 miles before we got to the campground, we were following the trail through a high alpine meadow above the treeline. I noticed a pile of something on the trail and bent over to see what it was.
It turned out to be fresh bear poop. Now when you're out in the middle of nowhere and you see a huge, blueberry filled pile of fresh bear crap, there should be only one question that pops in your head. "Where did he get those blueberries." We started looking around and noticed that we were in the middle of a huge blueberry patch. We stopped for a while, munched a few, and then continued on our way. After talking to some other hikers at our campground, we found out that one girl that was about and hour behind us saw 5 bears in that exact spot.
Day four saw us hiking 10.2 miles up to Mowich lake which was our first drive-in campground where we mailed one of our two food caches. Upon arriving at the lake and setting up camp, we hiked over to the ranger station to grab our food. Inside the hikers cache there was a bucket labeled "Free Food." We were like kids in a candy store. We took 4 packages of Ramen, three boxes of cous-cous, some stir-fry crap. Man it was great. We pigged out like we were never going to eat again. Ramen has never tasted so good.
After dinner we took a hike around Mowich lake to relax (yes, even after backpacking that many miles, a leisurely walk is still nice) and enjoy the beauty of this high mountain lake.
On day five we took our first departure off of the actual Wonderland Trail. The actual trail heads downhill for most of the day until it gets to our next campsite which was Carbon River. We took a different route that took us up the mountain higher through what is known as Spray Park. Spray Park is another high alpine meadow with beautiful views of the peak and the surrounding meadows. Sarah and I took our time through Spray Park, and we both agree that it was one of the most beautiful parts of the hike.
8.1 miles later we were at Carbon River Camp. This camp was interesting because you could tell that within a year or two there was a huge storm that knocked over many of the huge, 3ft diameter trees. Every campsite was in the middle of at least 6 fallen trees where they had to use a chainsaw to clear away the campsite again. This makes you wonder how many people we crushed and how safe are we? The campsite was really nice though and we were the only people for at least 2 miles.
While eating dinner we also noticed that we had messed up our itinerary and they had us finishing the trail in 11 days, not 10. We hadn't noticed this before so we had to come up with a plan to make up a whole day of hiking. We decided that the next day we would push through Mystic Lake and go right to Sunshine a day early.
The day ended up being a beautiful one, especially on the approach to Sunrise. We ended up doing 18.1 miles that day which was absolutely brutal on our feet. The problem was that once we got to Sunrise Camp, we had to hike another 1.3 miles to a ranger station to pick up our food cache, and then back again, which was exactly what you want to do after a day like that.
Day seven was a short but brutal hike up to Summerland, one of the most popular campgrounds in the park. It is only 7.8 miles from Sunshine, one of the few drive-in camps, so it's popular for the weekend hikers.
The campsite itself is situated just above the treeline with a decent view of the peak as well as back down the Fryingpan Creek Valley. This campground also appeared to be the favorite site for the parks marmots, as they were everywhere.
Day eight was probably my second favorite, if not favorite day on the trail. The hike from Summerland to Nickel Creek is mostly above the treeline and give beautiful view out over the Eastern part of the mountain.
The first 4.5 miles takes you over a few ridges and then you descend 1500 ft down to Indian Bar Campground. Sarah and I stopped there to rest and cook some lunch and to grab a quick nap in the sunshine.
The last 6.4 miles climbs back above the treeline before quickly diving down 2000 ft to the Nickel Creek campgroud
Day 9 was basically our last full day of hiking. From Nickel Creek you hike back into the populated part of the campground and hike of shadow the road back west through the south side of the park. I didn't like this section as much because you ran into a lot more people and we kind of near the road. 
We eventually make it to Paradise River Camp and spend our last night in the park.
On day 10 we got up at 6am, packed up camp, and headed the last 3.8 miles out to Longmire, where we got dropped off originally. It was really nice to be back to civilization, get a cup of coffee, and brush my teeth in
an actual sink. Kurt was nice enough to come back and pick us up, take us to his place, and we spent the rest of they day hanging out with the Masey crew. If we were going to hike this again, I don't think we would do the whole trail. We both agree that we would put in at Mowich Lake and hike out at Nickel Creek. This half of the trail give the most, clearest views of the mountain and was our favorite days on the trail. Here are all of the pics on Flickr.
