My Introduction to the Wonderland Trail

TL;DR: I walked around a mountain for 6 days like a newbie and bailed early… 10/10 would do it again.

The Plan

My plan was to circumnavigate Mt. Rainier counterclockwise beginning and ending at the Sunrise visitor center on the North East side of the mountain. The Sunrise area holds a beauty and experience unlike any other place on Earth. It is one of a select few places on the mountain that a car can drive into above 6,000 feet, where the air is always cold and thin no matter what time of year. The switch-backing roads are conquered to provide the most expansive view of the snow-capped mountain in all of its glory. The views this place provides puts butterflies in your stomach with awe, excitement, and fear of an Earthly feature so large that it pales human stature to the size of tiny spattered ink drops lost across the landscapes. In total I would be spending the next 8 nights and 9 days on the mountain in all of its rolling majesty over ~100 Miles and 24,000 ft of elevation loss and gain.

My permit was approved for late August just past the hottest time of summer, the time of year the scent of fall peppers the wind like a passing introduction when you stop to take it in. I had banked up enough vacation to set aside two weeks for the trip to make sure I had time to recover. As the time drew near, I was forced with the austere decision of having to cancel my trip for some unfavorable projects at work that were in desperate need of attention. As stubbornness would have it, my boss refused to let me lose this opportunity as it had been lost the previous year in the midst of a promotion and restructuring that required all my time and attention. With a certain amount of abandonment I left the office, made final arrangements with my team, and prayed I would return to some semblance of the day to day that I was leaving.

The People

I made my reservation for two but when my wife was unable to take the time needed off from work, I refused to let the chance slip away. This trip was meant to serve as a testament to my resolve to accomplish something that I had never done before. In spite of the resistance and concern I garnered from my wife and family members, I knew this was my one chance to surprise myself, for better or worse. To add to the fun, a colleague from work would be making his journey at the same time in 6 fewer days, starting 3 days after I set out… you know… for fun. Contrasted to me, a 33-year-old slightly overweight weekend gym enthusiast, Nate happens to be an established bicyclist-triathlon-marathon superhuman that enjoyed a chapter of his life with full sponsorship to compete with other ultra athletes. We planned to cross paths on my fifth day that would allow for enough time to high five and share a story. For all in-tents and purposes though, I was on my own.

The Gear

I spent months planning and preparing for this trip as much as I could. Having never done a single night backpacking or so much more than an extended day hike, I truly did not know what to expect. I spent hours each night pouring over gear reviews, ultra-lightweight gear lists, Reddit threads, and YouTube videos of backpackers and their equipment. During the workweek, I would compare notes with my colleague weighing pros and cons for each piece of gear. Since I already had an Osprey Atmos 65 Liter pack I picked up from REI the previous hiking season, all that was left was figuring out everything that goes in it… Every weekend that I wasn’t buying gear I was testing it out as much as I could on short day hikes or in the living room of my tiny one-bedroom apartment. Knowing that my lack of experience and training put me at risk for some peril, the largest investment I made was for a satellite GPS unit that could send text messages. So there I was, anchoring all of my decisions and hope around the confidence I had in my Garmin Mini and relying on it to be my final backstop for any worst-case scenario. As time ran out, so did my confidence in the decisions I had made about essentials, comfort, and food planning. As I took out my luggage scale for one last check before I walked out the door, my pack bounced around as I struggled to hold it in the air to see the needle on the dial float around the 55lb tick mark. I could only look at the number with my head turned sideways in disgust and exasperation trying to convince myself that it couldn’t possibly weigh that much doubting the accuracy of this cheap scale I picked up at Marshall’s. My brain was in conflict and there was no time left to reconcile what I saw, it was time to go.

The Approach

I had packed all of my things in my Honda Civic and was impatiently waiting for my wife to return home from her night shift of work at the children’s hospital to say our goodbyes. I paced in a chaotic path between the bedroom and living room with my mind racing with everything all at once, using the visual queues of where my items sat to tell myself a story of how this was all going to work out. I had planned to be on the road before 8 AM, but now it was only 30 minutes away until 9. As I waited I was haunted by a YouTube video of a hiker’s failed attempt at the Wonderland Trail. The vlogger made nearly every silly avoidable mistake that someone could make and I was determined to be more prepared. Yet, here I was, quickly identifying similarities with my situation and what I saw as key flaws in his attempt: a pack that was too heavy, behind schedule on what was going to be a long day of hiking, and having never tested my sleeping gear. It didn’t help that I was starting from the same location that the hiker in the video started from as well. Finally, I saw my wife pull into our carport through the window and I flew down the stairs to escort her in. We walked back up and inside where we held each other, and I breathed deeply taking in the smell of her hair. In that moment every fear and concern was washed away, and the purest emotion of joy took me. Life isn’t certain, and it can seem even less so when faced with dangers never encountered. I was probably just as likely to die in a car accident driving to work as I was from falling into a river on the trail, but I drive to work every day and it’s hard to see the adventure in that.

Read more: Wonderland Trail Day 1 – Sunrise to Mystic Lake