The day started out promising with us getting up by 7a, but…we still didn’t manage to get out of camp before 10a. One of us was really talkative today—no names. While we were packing up, the older couple that wandered into our camp yesterday (while I was contemplating the immensity of life) passed us on their way out of camp. We didn’t even realize they were in the camp last night. They must have been up on the other side of “lovers’ latrine”.
The first couple of miles were a breeze; all downhill through a magical forest. We lost another 1500’ on the way down to the Carbon River Suspension Bridge. It has slightly more than a 200’ span across the Carbon River and is about 30’ above the river. The bridge was built in 1984. Before that, every bridge built across the river had to be replaced on an almost annual basis. The bridge is thrilling to cross even if it isn’t that high. Pam insisted I go first (not realizing I still haven’t created a will). When you’re in the middle of the bridge, you can look up and see the Carbon Glacier. It’s the lowest glacier in elevation in the lower 48 and it’s still over 700’ tall. It boggles the mind to consider all the water raging beneath your feet is melt from the glacier. It’s called the Carbon Glacier because of its color—black with all the rock, dirt, and debris it’s carrying in it.
The bad part about the bridge is that it’s our low point in elevation for the day. After the bridge, we have to gain 3500’ and lose 1400’. To an old couple like us, that’s a lot of elevation change. Talking Pam into taking breaks takes surprisingly little effort after the bridge. We climb to a vantage point directly across from the mouth of the glacier and stop for a snack break. While we’re sitting there, we can hear rocks falling off of the glacier. There are 3 ice caves at the base of the behemoth that are pouring out water. It’s so loud and we’re probably a half mile away. It would definitely be a mistake to try to get near this glacier.
While we’re sitting there, a woman comes hiking down. She volunteers to take our picture when she sees me messing with the timer. We got to talking with her and found out she’s a mother of 5 and is finishing the trail today after 8 days. Her husband took some vacation time so she could get away without kids. She’s actually hiking out a day early because she misses her kids. If I had 5 kids and was given a chance to go hiking alone, I would never be seen again until the youngest was out of college.
We start climbing again. By this time, we’re 3 days in and are still less than 10 miles from our car. Two guys come running down the hill, pass us, then stop and turn around. “Hey, I know you guys.” I’m thinking I know no one out here. I follow the blog of a friend of a friend of mine that has a trail name of “Wired” and I know she’s supposed to be out here the end of August, but I’ve never met her and I know she doesn’t know who I am. Other than that, I can’t think of anyone that would know me. “Three nights ago, we were camped next to you at Mowich Lake.” They were finishing the trail on their 3rd day and we weren’t even really started yet. Trail running has become a big thing on loop trails. We ran into a lot of people doing Maroon Bells in a single day and now, the Wonderland Trail, is a popular 3 day run.
By the time we climbed up to Dick Creek which was only a little over a mile from the bridge, we needed a break. There were 5 women sitting in the creek having lunch and soaking their feet. This was a three generation group of women doing the Wonderland. I can’t even imagine one generation of women in my family doing this. I have one niece that likes to visit National Parks as long as they stay in lodges at night. The other niece claims to be an outdoorsy type, but I remember her crying after staying in a cabin at my place when I told her blood shot eyes in the morning meant you had a tick on you (I didn’t say she wasn’t gullible at times).
After the 3 generations took off, Pam and I were eating some lunch when I looked up and saw a face I knew. “Are you Wired?” Pam didn’t know what I was talking about and thought I was asking if she was stoned—this is Washington. She stopped and said she was. Wired is a high school friend of a woman, Jasmine, I know from back home. We talked for a bit and got pictures. Wired said usually she gets recognized on the trail but she had made it almost the entire loop without anyone recognizing her. Now today I was the third person who called her out. She was going to finish tomorrow (or maybe even tonight). They had been on the trail 5 days. I know from reading her blog that if she does less than 20 miles a day in any terrain, she gets very antsy and feels like she’s not accomplishing anything. She is very goal oriented. I wish I could handle that pace, but I don’t really want to. I admire her determination and energy.
Dick Creek is the smallest back country campsite with only 2 sites but one of them is right at the edge of a shelf directly across from the Carbon Glacier. We didn’t have reservations here, but if I ever do come back, I would try to get permitted for this spot. To get up to the camp from the creek, the NPS had left a knotted rope hanging down to help pull yourself up. It’s only about 20’ up and you could scramble on your hands and knees without the rope, but it was pretty cool climbing up. Not too long after Dick Creek, the trail turns more easterly leaving the glacier. You climb up and over a ridge then drop down 1100’ of the 2900’ you just climbed. By the time we caught sight of Mystic Lake outside of the camp, we were toast. The Mystic Lake patrol cabin sits a little bit back from the lake and campsite. Mystic Lake is also supposed to be great to sit in and chill because it gets pretty warm due to its shallow depth. We skipped the lake with the intention of going back after we had set up camp.
We were fairly late into camp so only had 2 or 3 sites to choose from. We chose the second site we came to and quickly set up camp and began cooking. I ran down to the stream to get water and saw the older couple we had already ran into a few times. They were John and Jenny. I talked to them for a while and said Pam and I would come back down in a bit after we had eaten. John had the most piercing blue eyes I’ve ever seen. They were so intense it felt like they were looking into your thoughts.
It cooled off quickly while we were cooking. Our site was on a western slope so we lost the sun early which means we’ll get it early in the morning. We cooked, cleaned up, hung our bear bags, and then headed down to talk to John and Jenny while we drank our hot tea. They are another interesting couple like Peter and Marcia we met in Scotland and Joan and Tom we met in the Grand Canyon. They were very easy to talk with and they’ve hiked a lot of trails that we want to do as well. We found out they have a very similar itinerary to ours so we will be hiking with them for the next 5 days or more.
