Day 6 -- Not my Best Day

South Mowich River Camp to Ipsut Creek Camp
9 miles / 2595 elevation gain

The night was warm and we slept well. Fresh in my mind though were those 32 switchbacks we had descended from Golden Lakes the previous afternoon. I'm no fool and I realize when you're doing a loop hike for every step you take down you have to take a step up. Some people prefer hiking uphill rather than down. I'm not one of those people. At this point I owed the mountain more up than down. This morning we'd be climbing 3.8 miles to Mowich with about 2600 elevation gain in those 3.8 miles. I found this to be the perfect excuse to feel sorry for myself. We didn't make it to camp that night until 6:00 and it was entirely my fault.

This photo is actually from Day one but pretty much surmises how I was feeling during the climb up to Mowich Lake:



It was another beautiful day with blue skies and no clouds. The climb up to Mowich Lake was uneventful except for my pouting. I'm embarrassed to say that it took 4 hours to get to Mowich Lake. Is hiking 3.8 miles in 4 hours even considered hiking? Perhaps "shuffling" would be a better word. Instead of positive thoughts and getting into a rhythm, I longed for flush toilets and water with no floaties. I only cried once.

About halfway up there was a trail that forked off to Paul Peak Trailhead. A week earlier I had driven by that trailhead on my way to Mowich Lake. There were lots of cars and even a ranger at Paul's Peak Trailhead that day. I knew in just a few miles and with less elevation gain than going to Mowich I could be at that trailhead with all those cars and bum a ride to Enumclaw. From Enumclaw, I could make a phone call and have a friend or my sister-in-law there within a hour to put me out of my misery. The thought only lasted a second and I knew I wasn't a quitter. I had made it this far and some guy on the internet said if you can make it to St. Andrews Park then you can do the whole thing. I had passed St. Andrews Park 2 days earlier. I kept moving.

We arrived at Mowich Late about 1:00 where we had two - 5 gallon buckets cached. One of them included food and supplies for the next 3 days. The other bucket was full of food for pig out lunch! We walked over and picked up the buckets and then went back to the campground to try and find a shady spot. It was 85 degrees and little shade to be found. I have to say that Mowich Camp ground is a dump and I would avoid staying there at all costs. I suppose that it does preserve the surrounding beauty by not having the campground in the woods but my idea of camping does not involve and abandoned gravel parking lot with no shade. We got out our lunch bucket which included a 6 pack of soda, ingredients for my favorite trail lunch, Southwest Chicken Wraps, chips, cookies, dried fruit, granola bars and Reese's Peaunut Butter Cups! Best of all we got to eat off a picnic table instead of our laps.

During lunch Emily befriended a pretty little butterfly:




It was fun at first but then after a few shakes of the finger to try to send the butterfly on its way Emily was a little concerned that she had picked up a new hiking partner:




The butterfly finally decided it wasn't up for the Wonderland Trail and flew away....

All I needed was a little junk food and I was feeling back to my adventurous self, ready to hit the trail. On the way out we contemplated a quick dip in the Lake. Mowich is a beautiful and crystal clear mountain lake. I couldn't get over how clear it was. We kept going but later in the day I regretted not stopping for a swim.


We climbed a bit more to Ipsut Pass where we had fantastic views. I was taken aback at the trial below. The trail we'd be descending. Zooey Mama! Boy was it steep! Here's another part of the trail where I just can't fathom that a human being could actually walk up this thing. There were 20 or so switchbacks to get to the bottom and the steepness was insane, sometimes 30 - 40 degree grades.

Here a photo from near the top and you can see the trail below:




Most switchback sections on the WLT are in forested areas so I enjoyed the different fauna here. as well as the views while climbing down. Again, I was very slow descending here. My poles were a lifesaver. Curt and Emily both took tumbles on this section.

When we reached the bottom we entered a very lovely forest. One of the prettiest of the entire trip. There were several streams and greenness everywhere. The trail was pretty gentle grade (for the Wonderland trail) and we just had a very enjoyable walk through this section.

Curt and Emily at a cool tree in the forest. The base was a big, hollow space and you could walk inside:




We finally reached Ipsut Creek Campground at 6:00. This campground used to be a regular drive-in campground but back in 20003 (I think? If it was not 2003 let me know and I'll change it) flooding wiped out the road to this lovely campground. Now it kind of has an eerie ghost town feel to me. There are parking spots, posts and information boards just like at Ohanapechosh and Cougar Campground but no road access. It's now treated as a back country campground. Several of the sites are closed due to dangerous widowmakers. I believe we chose site #15. The pit toilets were actually very clean and they were supplied with toilet paper. Our site had 2 picnic tables. Oooh La La! Isput Creek Campground is the lap of luxury for back country camping.

We ran into a guy who we had met back on day #1. He was hiking counterclockwise. We compared notes of our trips so far. He was a photographer and this was his third time doing the trail. I asked him about Panhandle Gap (we'd be crossing it on day 10) and he confirmed that yes, there are still snow fields there. He went into some technical stuff about crossing icy snow chutes and I started freaking out a little. I'm just a Mom of four who likes hiking and gets most of her ideas out of the Best Hikes with Kids books. I like to pick the "easy" and "moderate" rated hikes but if I'm feeling daring I'll pick a "difficult". I also have the 100 Classic Hikes in Washington book which lists the Wonderland Trail as "strenuous", of course. Honestly, I knew if I was in good enough shape I'd be able to do the climbing. The one part of the trail that really scared me was the crossing of the snow at Panhandle Gap. This year had been a heavy snow year so there would still be plenty of snow to cross. The guy told us that he had actually gotten lost the day he crossed that area due to dense fog and had to use his emergency whistle to find someone to help him. This couldn't be good! An experienced WLT hiker had gotten lost in this section and warned us of the snowy crossings. How will I ever make it? These questions weight heavily on my mind the following days.

It was another warm night so no rain fly again.

Here's Emily enjoying the picnic table to help sterilize the water:



Gear of the Day:
My beloved IPhone 4. We still had not had any cell coverage on the trail but I love the Hipstamatic App. This app allow you to take photos using retro lenses and film for some really cool effects. Since my camera was being difficult the camera 5.2 MP camera on the new IPhone 4 came in really handy. Here's one of the Hipstamatic images from day 8:

Another favorite App on the trail was Yahtzee! Each night after we were all snuggled in our sleeping bags Emily and I would play a game or two to help us relax and unwind from the day's events.

I maybe used the phone 30 minutes / day and it lasted all the way to day 9 (Summerland) where I had service so I ran through the rest of the battery pretty quickly there. :o)