Last year, I hiked the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier (and wrote about it here)
A year later - with a whole lot less planning, I decided to do it again. As with last year, skip the first section if you don’t care about the trip details.
The Hike
Friday, Sept. 13 (White River->Mystic Lake) - Left home early and arrived at White River Ranger station around 7:40am. Picked up almost the exact itinerary I wanted, parked my car, and took off hiking. Was surprised/disappointed at the dozen tourists at the top of Skyscraper Pass tromping all over the meadow for their picnic lunches, but I bit my lip and hiked on to Mystic Camp. I got there just in time to witness a helicopter evacuation, and then set up my tent while a fog rolled in.
12.2 miles, 4300 feet up, 3000 down
Saturday, Sept. 14 (Mystic-Mowich) - I zipped out of Mystic early for a big day. Cloud cover was low, so I decided to not take the spray park alt (I took this last year) and try the long way around. It was long and uneventfu…
