8 miles / 985 elevation gain
Today would be our shortest / easiest day of the entire trip.
We awoke at 7:00 and were packed up and ready to go at 8:30. I felt great and no soreness from yesterday's hike. We began the quick trip to Longmire. On the way to Longmire we passed Carter Falls:
Here's a typical bridge crossing on the WLT:
During the trip when Emily saw a big rock she would dub it a "Sitting Rock" and would have to climb to the top to sit on it. Here she is on her first "Sitting Rock":
We made our way down to the area where the Paradise and Niqually Rivers converge. It was a cloudy day but you could see a little of the mountain:
We had to get a picture of Emily by the Cougar Rock Campground sign. Cougar Rock is the site of "The Incident" which happened 7 years ago. We were camping at Cougar Rock when Emily was injured. Long story made short.... She had a hard fall off of a big stump, stopped breathing, turned blue and eyes rolled back in her head. She had to be Life Flighted to Children's Hospital in Seattle. Ever wonder how much a Life Flight trip from Cougar Rock to Seattle Children's hospital costs? Well, 7 years ago it was $10,000. Thankfully, insurance covered most of it. Anyway, Emily was fine and now here she is 7 years later hiking the Wonderland Trail:
We arrived in Longmire at 10:30. We went to the Ranger Station and picked up our food cache. There was another hiking party there and they were halfway through their trip. They had started at Sunrise and were hiking counterclockwise. We traded them a can of Pringles for a book which Curt was interested in reading (some western novel). I was worried that all the stuff from the two - 5 gallon buckets we had cached there wouldn't fit in our packs but it fit just fine. I put all the breakfast and lunches in my pack and Curt put all the dinners and snacks in his pack. We stashed our packs under the big relief map in the Visitors center and headed over to the museum. After checking out the museum we walked over to the hotel / restaurant / gift shop. First order of business was to make a donation to the hotel's library of our extra copy of "The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo".
It was still a little early for lunch so we went to check out the gift shop. They had toys for 50% off so we bought a couple little decks of cards to play Old Maid and Crazy 8s. We had fun playing these at nights in the tent.
We then went to have lunch at the restaurant and then back to pick up our packs. A lot of people start and finish their WLT hikes here in Longmire. Just as we were about to leave we saw a couple come in who had just finished. Hopefully that would be us in 9 more days. We had our picture taken by the sign and then started our way to Pyramid Creek Camp.
Curt headed up Rampart Ridge:
In Bette Filley's book, "Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail" she talks about conditioning. She says that even people in good shape will think that they are going to die on day 1 and then on day 2 they will wish they would. She goes on to say something magical happens on day 3 and you get a spring in your step and you keeping walking and live happily ever after... Or something like that. I never got that spring in my step. Maybe it got easier later in the trip but it was never easy for me. She also talks about how the "Unconditioned Neophyte" starting from Longmire will surely have a tough time making over Rampart Ridge.
In the climb up Rampart Ridge, we gained all the day's elevation within a mile. We started the steep climb and my pack felt so much heavier since we added the extra weight from the food cache. That must be the reason I was having a hard time. It couldn't have been that *I* am an "Unconditioned Neophyte" could it? Maybe it was a little of both. I had really worked hard to get in shape but I sure didn't feel in shape that day. I schelpped my way up the ridge and finally we made it to Pyramid Creek Camp.
We were the only people there and again picked site #1. Nobody else showed up to camp the rest of the night so we had the place to ourselves. We set up camp and headed over to Pyramid Creek to get water and soak feet. That cold mountain water right off the glacier is mighty tasty!
Once back in camp we finished setting up. As I unpacked my bag I noticed all the food for the next four days (breakfasts and lunches) was missing from my bag. Had I left it in Longmire? Nope. Curt confessed that back in Longmire when I wasn't looking he switched it to his bag and he had been carrying it. My pack hadn't been any heavier after lunch as we hiked over Rampart Ridge. It occurred to me that I had no excuse. I really was an "Unconditioned Neophyte" who had only completed 17 miles and 3000 feet of elevation gain so far. I still had 76 miles and 20,000 more feet of elevation gain.
Now a word about toilets... Each back country camp on the Wonderland Trail has a toilet. Here is the toilet at Pyramid Creek:
Some camps like Devils Dream, South Mowich and Summerland have a real outhouse with walls. I suppose the purpose of the walls is that these are busier camps and it offers some privacy. Unfortunately, these walls really hold in the fumes and I refuse to use them. People who know me well know that I will walk an extra half mile when camping just to avoid using a pit toilet if I can walk to a flush toilet. I avoid pit toilets at all costs and I also don't like floaties in my drinking water (more on that later.) Another problem is that sometimes when you are alone in the woods your imagination get the better of you. I had just watched Jurassic Park a few weeks before we left and sometimes that scene (you know which scene) would flash through my head but this time it involved an angry bear instead of a T-Rex. I'm really not afraid of the nice, black bears in Mt. Rainier National Park and when we did see them I acted appropriately and didn't freak out so I don't know why these images came to my mind.
And to finish up day 2....
Emily blew up all 3 of our air mattresses and pillows while I made dinner. We were in bed by 7:30 which was pretty much our bed time each night on the trail. We averaged 11 hours of sleep every night.
Gear of the day:
Trail Runners! I debated long and hard about whether we should use hiking boots or trail runners. Advantage of trail runners is that they are much lighter than hiking boots so your legs don't get tired so fast picking up a heavy boot with every step. Another good thing about trail runners is they dry fast. If you happen to get your shoes wet the mesh materials of trail runners dry fast. You also get fewer blisters with trail runners. We were pretty much blister free on this trip. I did get a little blister on day 9 but other than that no feet problems at all. Disadvantage of the trail runners is no ankle support so you are more prone to rolling you ankle, especially on rocky terrain. Wearing the traditional hiking boot also comes in handy for snow crossing which we didn't encounter until day 10 but it would have been nice to have a sturdier shoe for the snow crossings. We all wore trail runners and if I were to do the WLT again I'd pick trail runners again.
Here are our shoes:
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