Y’all. What’s 93 miles, twenty-two thousand feet of elevation gain and loss, and quite possibly the most magical thing in the world?? The Wonderland Trail!!
I’ve been wanting to tackle this loop around Mt. Rainier as a multi-day trail run since I ran part of it 2 (I think) years ago with a friend on the Owyhigh Lakes Loop. That day, I thought it was the most outrageously gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. And honestly, doing the full loop, it only gets better:)
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(like WHAT THE HECK, how is this even possible??)
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I have also been nervous about it (omg 93 miles is so far to run!), and have had a hard time putting together the logistics of it. I wanted to do it in three days, but I needed support for that, someone to move my tent and sleeping bag and extra food and stuff for me each day since I’m not quite hardcore enough to do this as a fully self-supported thing.
But this year was the year!! James very generously offered to take some days off and rent a car to support me, so he moved our camp every morning to the next of the three frontcountry campgrounds on the Wonderland Trail. He shuttled all our camping stuff, my extra socks, and food, then had his own hiking adventures while I ran during the day. Truly, that is the most amazing of gifts:)
So, holy shmoly. The Wonderland Trail! I don’t know if I can even describe how breathtaking of an experience this was. I’d been pretty quiet about my running plans until right before I did it, since I didn’t want to jinx it somehow — I was worried about injury, or about wildfires making it impossible to do it when I had the time, or any number of things. But somehow, it all worked out, and the days I had there were glorious weather if a little hot, good air quality, healthy body and mind, all the things I would have wanted. It was fricken amazing.
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(and oh, the wildflowers!!!)
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I opted to run counterclockwise, which is opposite what most people hike, purely to make it easier for James and the fact that I wasn’t able to get timed-entry permits for us. (People on the internet seem to say the elevation gain is easier to handle going clockwise for some reason, but honestly I kinda figure either way you’re going up and down 22,000 ft so bring it, ha.) The National Park Service implemented timed-entry permits this year between 7am and 3pm to limit car traffic in the park, but they were hard for me to get since I don’t live on my computer to immediately reserve something the second the permit window opens. So, anyway, long story short, since we didn’t have permits, it made more sense for James to drive counterclockwise. So I ran that way too.
For the visually inclined, here’s a map of the Wonderland Trail elevation profile. I was moving right to left on that map, starting at Cougar Rock campground (not marked on the profile) just uphill to the left from Longmire. Though, I said “(mostly) Wonderland Trail” in the title here because on my second day, between White River and Mowich Lake, I took the Spray Park Trail rather than Wonderland, since I’d read it was really pretty. I can’t say how it compares to Wonderland, but it was amazingly beautiful, closer to Mt. Rainier than the Wonderland Trail, and only 0.1mi shorter (according the the NPS trail signs anyway).
My breakdown of days:
- Day 1: Cougar Rock to White River, just over 30 miles
- Day 2: White River to Mowich Lake (partly on the Spray Park alternate), just over 26 miles
- Day 3: Mowich back to Longmire (so, not quite back to Cougar Rock), almost 36 miles
I joked with James that Day 2 was my “rest day,” since at only marathon length rather than 50k (ha), it was significantly shorter than the other two days. And actually, I hiked rather than ran for a lot of the second day, even on the “easy” parts, not only to save my legs a bit for the last day but also because it was so fricken gorgeous that I kept stopping to take pictures. I also saw a million marmots, a pika, and a fricken bear, so it was a great wildlife day too:)
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(this was Day 2 from Spray Park, for example:)
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(and this was too, looking the other direction)
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Probably the potentially hardest thing about running counterclockwise and starting at Cougar Rock is that my last day, when I was already pretty tired, was by far the longest one. I had also heard from several people that there was a tricky and bridgeless river crossing at Kautz Creek, only about 3 miles from where I was going to finish, so I wanted to make sure I was there before dusk in case it was actually difficult to navigate. Omg it was difficult to navigate! I like to think that I am pretty good at such things, but it took me probably at least 45 minutes just to figure out how to cross the damn river and navigate the mess of recursive cairns and flags to find where I was supposed to go when I got to the other side. (Side note: I think it would have been easier coming the opposite direction, since a big thing was just that I couldn’t find the trail on the other side, but if I’d already been on that trail coming the other direction I think I could have done it better.)
But tricky river crossing aside, my last day was so much more awesome than I was expecting. For some reason, I thought I would mostly be in the trees that day, but no! It turns out I was still never actually that far from another amazing Mt. Rainier view.
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(for REALZ! How is this even possible??)
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Plus, I finally found the delicious ripe huckleberries and low-growing blueberries, and ate many of them like the little foraging bear than I am. I saw a sweet little owl that I swear was a Northern Hawk owl though it seems a little far south for them. I ate many, many snacks although I started to get angry at some of the energy bars I had with me (looking at you, Larabar) after having consumed too many of them over the last 90 miles. And I went for an impromptu swim in one of the amazing lakes I passed.
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(admit it, you probably would have swum in this lake too;)
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(such a happy running lake stasia:)
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So, long story short, this was probably one of my favorite things that I’ve ever done. I had so many moments every day where all of a sudden something — a view, or a flower, an improbable lake, a bear, anything — would stop me short and even by myself I would out loud say something like “holy shit!” or “what the heck!” or “oh my god!” just because it was all so breathtaking and amazing and I couldn’t believe I was there running it and how fricken lucky is my life that I get to be here?? My soul is very, very full from this.
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(awwww post-run with my best supportmate:)
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James and I met up at Longmire when I was finished with my run and got a hotel (and a sweet, sweet shower) just outside the National Park boundary in Ashford, WA. And then the next day, we got up early (to beat the timed-entry permit thing again) to go back to the park to have a day exploring together. Which felt like a very sweet way to cap an amazing run and an incredibly generous gift of James to have supported me for. Not gonna lie, I was pretty sore and moved a bit like a crippled version of myself (especially if faced with things like going down stairs, ha), but we still took a little hike around Paradise (which I hadn’t seen on my run) and then another jaunt to Silver Falls on the east side of the park. It was super sweet to get some joint play time too at the end:)
And then when we got home I went to bed at 7pm and slept like an absolute rock for over 12 hours. Heh. And here I am now, looking at pictures and eating copious amounts of food and feeling so very, very grateful and lucky and amazed that I got to do this:)
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UPDATE: I actually did finally make a photo album that fully shows 360 degrees of Mt Rainier:) It’s here if you want more pictorial details.