9 miles (plus and extra mile to get from Sunrise to Sunrise Camp) / 2200 elevation gain
It was a very cold, windy and a nearless sleepless night. We awoke to overcast skies but the wind had stopped.
In planning the trip I had worried about this day because we had not packed dinner as we were planning on eating in the cafeteria at Sunrise. We also had our final cache to pick up at the Sunrise Ranger Station. Both close at 6:00. Before the trip I was concerned that we might not be able to hike the 9 miles from Mystic Lake to Sunrise before 6:00. I had visions (and maybe even an actual dream) about us being 2 miles away from Sunrise at 5:30. Curt would have to drop his pack and sprint to make it in time to get our cache in time and we'd have no dinner. Maybe Curt could order dinner to go and bring it back to us. I guess that was my plan B.
I'm not sure why I thought it would take us so long to hike 9 miles but before this trip the longest I had ever hiked in one day with a backpack was maybe 7 miles and that was easy terrain. Pre-trip I over estimated how long it would take us to hike each day as I thought all the elevation gain would slow us down a lot more than it did. Now it was day 8 and I knew that we'd have no problem making it to Sunrise by 6:00. We left Mystic Lake Camp 8:00 and got to Sunrise at 1:45 and this included an hour and a half lunch stop at Skyscrapper Pass. Not bad for an middle aged, out of shape lady, huh?
The miles and elevation passed quickly. The first highlight of the day was the moraine park just below Winthrop Glacier. Rainier barely showed her lovely self just for a few minutes:
Again, the clouds took over and that was the last time we would see her Day 8.
Some photos of us below Winthrop Glacier: (using the Hipstamatic App on my Iphone)
We crossed the moraine park and Winthrop Creek to reach the beautiful Garda falls:
We saw beautiful falls everyday of the trip. This was one of my favorites.
We then began climbing and soon had great views of the terminus of Winthrop Glacier and headwaters of Winthrop Creek:
The switchbacks started and the trail climbed just about 2200 feet to Skyscraper Pass. I had been looking forward to the panoramic views at Skyscraper Pass but they weren't to be this day. We did enjoy our lunch there and saw our first of many day hikers for the day. During lunch Emily was eyeing Skyscraper Mountain. The book said that on a clear day you would have fantastic views of the Cascades including the Stewart Range and all the way to Mt. Baker. It wasn't a clear day and I had no intentions of climbing anymore than I had to. I thought the book said it was an additional 700 foot climb to the top but sitting here looking at the map (we cut the book up in to sections for the hike and then threw it away) it shows that it was only 300 feet higher than the pass. If it had been a clear day I probably would have done it but I only signed up to climb 23,000 feet and I wasn't doing any extra unless it was for a really good reason.
After lunch Curt and Emily decided to climb it. I happily sat and rested.
My view as I sat and waited. They are somewhere up there:
Emily at the top:
Due to the clouds there weren't many views from the top but here's one looking straight down:
After Curt and Emily made their way back down we hit the trail for the last few miles to Sunrise. There were some beautiful areas here and we'll definitely be back for day hiking many trails around Sunrise.
Just on the other side of Skyscraper Pass you can see the Wonderland Trail where we were headed winding down below:
At this point we started passing lots of day hikers. We hadn't showered in 8 days and we were Hiker Trash and I was proud of it! I recall when I was younger and I would often see hiker trash on day hikes and I wanted to be like them. Many day hikers would want to stop and talk. They would ask us where we had come and how long we had been out. When they found out we were doing the Wonderland Trail many of them shared their aspirations of hiking the trail someday. Some had already hiked it. They were always very impressed with Emily and her ability to hike the trail. I received my first "Congratulations". We only had 2 more days and I was going to make it (as long as I didn't die at Panhandle Gap.)
Here we are at Frozen Lake:
And a few shots from above Sunrise:
We arrived at Sunrise and picked up our last cache. We got the food all organized in our packs for the last time.
The wind was starting to pick up and it was cold. We went up to the cafeteria but we had just eaten lunch a few hours earlier so we browsed the shops, used bathrooms with real flush toilets and filled up our water with the "clean" water.
We went back to the cafeteria where there was at least 3 groups of other WLT hikers hanging out. We bought a game of National Park Yahtzee in the gift shop as a souvenir for our youngest daughter who didn't make the trip and played it in the cafeteria until it was time for dinner. I was in no hurry to get back out into that cold wind with rain predicted. The forecast was for very cold temperatures (close to 30) that night and we found out that it had gotten down to 30 the previous night when we were camped at Mystic Lake. At this point, I chose the warm shelter of civilization over going back out. If we had ran into someone we knew and was headed back our direction I could have easily been talked into going home. Truly, I wouldn't have done it but it was hard heading back out when it was time to go to brave sleeping out in the freezing (literally) cold.
It was finally time for dinner and the food was OK but not great. At least I didn't have to cook it.
At 5:30 we left to walk the final mile down to Sunrise Camp. This was actually a very nice, large campground. We walked around the whole place and finally decided on site #7. We saw a deer in one of the camp sites right next to ours. Again, we quickly set up camp to escape the cold.
Tip of the day:
One of the last things I bought for the trip was a fleece beanie on clearance at REI. We all know that a large portion of body heat escapes through our head. Keeping our head covered in cold weather makes a huge difference.
Honestly, on all our previous backpacking trips I had never taken a cap of any kind. Most of our backpacking trips were in the summer with warm temperatures and it never really occurred to me to take a cap. I used this cap everyday and I was surprised how much you can regulate your comfort level outside with the cap. When it was really cold while we were hiking I'd put it on and then after hiking awhile I'd warm up so I'd take it off. After a break I'd get cold again and just pull the cap out of my pocket and stick it back on. So much easier and continually putting on and taking off layers while backpacking. This will be a must take item on all future trips for me.
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