Day 3 - Slow and Steady

Pyramid Creek Camp - South Puyallup River Camp
8 miles / 3085 elevation gain


I awoke with much trepidation as this day would bring one of the biggest elevation gain days of the entire trip - 3085 feet in 8 miles. I had done OK with the 2000 elevation gain on Day 1 but after Day 2's 985 feet I realized I was an 'Unconditioned Neophyte'. I had never climbed this much in one day even on a day hike without a backpack on.

Was I up for the challenge? Would I make it all the way to South Puyallup camp? Did I really have a choice? This section of the trail is on the west side of the mountain where the nearest road has been closed since 2003 so it's not like I really had a bailout point. It's funny because as I write this exactly two weeks later I don't remember this being an especially challenging day at all. I was excited to get this day underway because in my mind this was going to be the greatest, most spectacular day of the hike. We'd be passing through Indian Henry's Hunting Ground and then over the Tahoma suspension bridge.

We left camp at at 8:30 and made our way up to Indian Henry's Hunting ground. I envisioned the vast meadows filled with oodles of vibrant wildflowers that we'd be seeing here. We'd see the patrol cabin surrounded by those flowers with Rainier set perfectly in the background. Of all the different spots I heard about and seen in pictures on the Wonderland this, in my mind, was the most idyllic spot on the entire trail. We would sit on the porch of the patrol cabin for lunch and it would be perfect.

As we started our ascent out of Pyramid Creek Camp it became apparent that there would be no views today. It was cloudy and not just cloudy but dark rain clouds cloudy. I bet there have been very few (if any) hiking parties that have ever done a 10 day loop of Rainier and not got rained on. Part of the trail even goes through a rain forest. When we were in Longmire a few days earlier the forecast said it would be cloudy with a chance of rain so we were already expecting it.

I accepted the fact that my "perfect" lunch at Indian Henry's wasn't to be today. Still, as we climbed and got closer the flowers were amazing:


Pictures don't even begin to show the vast colorful flower meadows and the pictures we took this day just aren't that great either. There was Lupine, Magenta Paintbrush, Bear Grass and Meadow Parsley EVERYWHERE. Lots of others I can't remember the names of but we were completely surrounded by the flowers.

We continued climbing and climbing and I repeated over and over in my mind, "Slow and steady, slow and steady, slow and steady..." It really seemed to help me keep focused on just taking it slow and not getting overwhelmed with all the climbing.

We arrived at Indian Henry's Hunting Ground:



As we approached the cabin we were sweating heavily from the climb up to Indian Henry's. It hadn't started raining (yet) but the temperature was dropping quickly and it was quite windy. I would guesstimate that with wind chill it was in the lower 30s. Our clothes were wet from sweat and conditions were ripe for hypothermia. We had the porch of the patrol cabin all to ourselves so we quickly changed in to dry clothes and got out the stove and made hot chocolate.

While we were warming up and eating lunch on the porch a back country ranger came by. We chatted for a few minutes and I asked her about weather forecast for the next few day. When we were in Longmire the forecast for the latter part of the week was clear and sunny so I expected the ranger to reiterate that forecast. She simply replied, "More of the same." My heart sank. More of the same? She had to be wrong and I wouldn't accept more of the same. I wanted views. I had already accepted that today was out for the views but I wanted views tomorrow and more of the same wasn't going to cut it.

She left and we packed up and started the decent down to the Tahoma crossing. Just a few minutes after we left it started to drizzle. We quickly put on rain gear and pack covers but just a few minutes later the sprinkles stopped. It sprinkled off and on the rest of the day but it never really rained. In the rain department we had it pretty good the entire trip. We only had to put on our rain gear twice and both times it stopped sprinkling a few minutes later. It never rained at night while we were in our tent so no having to pack up a wet tent. We never had to set up the tent while it was raining either. There were a few times during the 10 days when we thought for sure it would start pouring any minute but it never did.

Emily in her rain gear:




Curt in his rain gear:



Soon we arrived at the Tahoma Suspension bridge:




It was bouncier than I was expecting but it was fun!

We started our final climb of the day up, over and around Emerald Ridge. Soon we entered our first moraine park and I have to say that the moraine parks were some of my favorite sections of the trail I loved seeing all the rocks the glaciers had left behind interspersed with wild flowers. This is prime hang out spots for Marmots which kind of looked like cats running around. Emily quickly nicknamed them "Meow Meows".

The moraine parks were always surrounded awe-inspiring, panoramic vistas. While I'm sure on a clear day the view of the Tahoma Glacier and Rainier would have been fantastic being surrounded by low moving clouds and walking through that area was eerily stunning. The clouds didn't cover the terminus of the Tahoma Glacier or Glacier Island so we still got views of part of the mountain as well as several waterfalls up on the mountain:


Emily with the terminus of the Tahoma Glacier behind her:



Once we reached the top of Emerald Ridge our climbing was done for the day -- YAY! As the trail began to descend it went right along an exposed cliff where falling would have been quite unfortunate. Due to the earlier rain, the rocky trail was slippery and I was extra careful to watch my steps here.

We arrived at camp at 4:30 and we were all cold. We quickly set up camp as it looked like it was about to start pouring any minute but it never did. South Puyallup River Camp was the nicest camp we had stayed in so far. We took site 3 and later in the evening 2 or 3 other groups came in. There's no access to water in the South Puyallup River and that water is the "chocolate milk" glacial water anyway. The water source in camp looked OK but Curt offered to run 1/4 mile back up the trail to get some good water we had seen on our way into camp. Before dinner we took a quick walk to Devil's Organ Pipe rock formation. It's practically right in camp and right across from the toilet:




Eager to get into dry clothes, we were in bed by 7:00 that night.

Another great day on the Wonderland Trail!

Tip of the day: Keep an extra pair of socks in your sleeping bag. By doing this you are always guaranteed dry socks to put on at the end of the day.