Day 4 - Perfect Day Was a Day Late

South Puyallup River Camp to North Puyallup River Camp
7 Miles / 1800 elevation gain.

Today would be an easier day. A few months before we left I had read a trail journal of a successful WLT hiker. The author had commented that if one were to leave from Longmire (hiking clockwise) and make it all the way to St. Andrews Park surely, they would be able to do the entire trail. I guess in his mind, St. Andrews Park is the make it or break it point. Subconsciencely, I think I had adpoted his word as gospel and I believed him. If I could just make it to St. Andrews Park, I would prove myself strong enough to complete the entire circuit.

First thing after waking up I checked the weather. Was it going to be "more of the same" as the Ranger promised the previous day or were we going to have some nice weather? A quick peak out the tent revealed blue skies with no clouds in sight! That beautiful sight lifted my spirits and I was looking forward to the day's hike.

We gained all of the day's elevation (1800 feet) in the first two miles. I hadn't heard or read much about St. Andrew's Park and I was more than pleasantly surprised with the beauty of this spot. On Day 9 and Day 10 as we'd talk to other hikers on the trail they'd often ask which was my favorite part of the trail and I would tell them St. Andrews Park. It must have been combination of the clear skies, views of Rainier, a park full of wild flowers just about at their peak, a perfectly still alpine lake reflecting everything that surrounded us and my 11 year old daughter's comment, "This is the most beautiful place on the trial so far." It was beautiful, breathtaking in fact. This was the perfect place I had expected yesterday at Indian Henry's. This was the reason I had worked so hard the previous 1.5 years.

Sadly, the mosquitoes liked it there too. It was by far the worst infestation of mosquitoes on the entire trail. They usually leave me alone but these bugs hadn't received the memo that mosquitoes don't like Jamie. We got out our Jungle Juice (AKA 100% Deet), snapped the photos and moved on.

Saint Andrews Park:


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I didn't get any pictures of the meadows at St. Andrews Park but here's some with a WLT sign on the way to Klapatche:



We made it to Klapatche just in time for lunch as did the other groups who had camped at South Puyallup the previous night and 3 groups who had camped at North Puyallup the previous night. We all sat on the log next to the lake while we had lunch.

It was beautiful here and I can see why many people suggest this as one of the best camp spots on the trail. I hear sunsets here while watching the mountain are something not to be missed. I had read one negative about camping here though, the water source. Not only is the lake there very murky but there were 1000s of tadpole swimming around in the water. Up to now we had always had access to "good" water when we needed it. The book said that there was a spring on the other side of the lake so Curt went to look for it but came back saying it was dried up.

I really didn't want to drink the tadpole water. I saw other people pumping from the lake but we had a Steripen and the Steripen filter which isn't that great for this situation. The Steripen works great for clean water retrieved from a stream or creek but not so great for murky lake water and people who don't like floaties. Last year on a backpack trip we arrived to our destination, a camp spot on Clear Lake in Indian Heaven Wilderness. We let the dog off leash once we reached our camp site and what was the first thing she did? She ran in the lake and urinated right there in our water source. That really grossed me out and taught me a lesson about letting the dog off leash! It would seem that if I could drink that water I could certainly drink the murky tadpole water. Maybe we should reconsider our water system for lakes in the future. This was really the only spot on the entire trail where we "almost" had to succumb to floaties in our water. However, a very nice fellow hiker we met a few days earlier said he'd been carrying too much water and we'd do him a favor by taking a liter off his hands. I'm sure he was tired of me whining about the possibility of drinking the lake water. We graciously thanked him and had enough water to get to a better water source.

While we were having lunch we met a very nice couple from The Netherlands. They had come to hike the Wonderland Trail and started a few days earlier in Mowich and were hiking counterclockwise. They didn't know about cacheing food so they had all 11 days food with them from the very beginning. They had just come in from North Puyallup and said they had seen a bear out beyond the lake just as they were coming into Klapatche. It was the same time Curt was out there looking for that elusive spring and they were surprised Curt hadn't seen it. We talked to them for awhile and hoped to meet up with them on the other side near the end of our hike.

Klapatche was beautiful and we enjoyed our lunch there but I bet the bugs in the evening are really bad. I don't regret not staying there. Here we are after lunch on our way out:



A meadow near Klapatche:




We began the long decent down to North Puyallup River Camp. There were many switch backs and we soon came to a small waterfall where we filled up on good water.

Nice view leaving Klapatche:




We arrived at camp at 3:00 and chose site #3. We got water from a near by stream to rinse out our clothes. We had been going for 4 days now and getting pretty dirty. While we were at the stream we saw our first group of many trail runners. These are people who run around the mountain in 3 days. They usually do it in 3 segments, Longmire to Mowich, Mowich to Sunrise and Sunrise to Longmire (either clockwise or counterclockwise direction). Often, they will have support teams that meet the and have a camp set up for them where they will have a short rest period before starting again. I'm in awe of any human being that can actually do this. It took me 19 months to get in good enough shape to barely drag myself around the mountain. How would one ever get in good enough shape to do something like that?

After dinner we went down to the river to see the Sunset Amphitheatre during sunset. It was a beautiful way to end the day. Curt and Emily walked up stream a little ways:



Gear of the Day: REI Half Dome 4 Tent

I always assumed we'd bring our 3 person backpacking tent on this trip since there were 3 of us going. In June, four of us went on a backpacking trip in the Olympics. Curt remarked how much faster this tent was to set up and how much more room it has. He suggested that we bring that tent on the WLT. At first I was against it as I was trying to keep pack weights as low as possible but for an extra pound (which Curt happily carried) we had a lot more room. If we had really bad weather the three of us and all our backpacks could have fit inside. By backpacking standards we had luxurious, palatial accommodations each night on the trail.