We woke up early and decided to skip breakfast since it looked like rain. There was really a better reason than this. We were only 0.8 miles from Box Canyon which is on the road. Since this is a popular front country roadside stop, there will be porcelain! From the time we woke up to the time we were touching said porcelain, we set a new land speed record for us. We were the first visitors of the day and had private seatings. I apologize to the poor family that followed me in, not for the mess, but for the lingering odors.
The Muddy Fork of the Cowlitz River has cut through solid granite creating Box Canyon which is over 180’ deep and only 25’ wide. We had a little difficulty following the trail across the road once we crossed the bridge over Box Canyon but eventually got the right path. We made up our minds to eat breakfast after we were past the Stevens Creek Trail to get out of the tourist area. I was starting to get cranky (a good indication of hunger for me) when Pam decided to shut me up by feeding me. As we were eating, 3 college aged guys came by. We talked to them a bit and found out they were all originally from the Cape Girardeau, MO area the same as us. Small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.
The day continued to warm up and at one point, we even had sunshine. We stopped for a few minutes to dry out some of our clothes. Pam popped into Maple Creek to make use of the facilities. This is where John and Jenny stayed last night, but they were already gone. We’ll catch up with them again tonight at Paradise River. The trail still wasn’t too bad for the next few miles; fairly level, slight ups and downs. We could see the Stevens Canyon Road above us across the canyon. From this angle we could really admire the engineering and hard work that went into building the road. As we started climbing again, we came to a curve and then a pretty sketchy area of trail. We decided to refuel before attempting this section. We didn’t need a low sugar here!
While eating my favorite trail lunch again, another old guy in his late 70s came down. He said that section was scary and go slow. He was soloing the Wonderland Trail in the counterclockwise direction. We delayed as long as we could. I stowed my uphill hiking pole so I could hold onto the wall. It’s only about 100 yards across the wash. The park has looked at rerouting the trail to skip this wash, but they can’t come up with a path that doesn’t add a couple of miles. Rather than add the distance, they’ve just cut deeper into the wash hoping they have stabilized this section. It looks much worse than it really is.
From here is a lot of climbing in and out of woods passing several water falls. You end up crossing the road and climbing over a ridge before you drop back down and walk parallel to the road around Louise Lake and Reflection Lakes. Continuing the trend of the last few days, there are clouds across the face of Mt Rainier blocking its reflection. Since we are right next to the road, there are a lot of front country types. One woman brought her 90 year old parents down the trail. They had walkers with wheels and she was complaining about how uneven the trail was. I’m excited to see older people out enjoying nature, but I think she has unrealistic expectations about trails and walkers.
We passed up the turn to Paradise Visitor’s Center since we had driven up there on our free day at the beginning. It would have added about 3 more miles to our day. If we were younger, in better shape, and hadn’t already been there, I would have wanted to do it. Honestly, Pam’s feet, shoulders, hips, neck, all hurt and when she’s in pain she is always willing to share with me. I might have been a little sore but I would have manned up if Pam wanted. We pushed on to camp.
Guess who we ran into at the turn. John and Jenny, who are older, took the side trip up to Paradise. To be fair, their day was 3 miles shorter than ours was, so they just evened out with us. They said we should at least go up to Narada Falls. We wanted to decline but they said it was only a couple hundred yards. It was worth the effort. This is the Paradise River so it was a pretty impressive falls.
Back at the junction of the Wonderland, it indicated only 0.7 miles to Paradise River Camp. Maybe we were tired, but this was the longest 0.7 miles we’ve hiked since we had climbed Mt LaConte in the Smokies. When we finally made it into camp, it was a shambles. There were downed trees everywhere. The park service had done their best to carve out some campsites in all the carnage. We were the last ones there and we had to cut through another campsite to get to ours. We met a nice young couple, Michelle “Brownie” and her husband Greg. Since we passed through their camp so much to get water, hang bear bags, use the latrine, we went down after supper to just chat a bit. John and Jenny came over and joined in the conversation. Brownie has written a couple of books about her experiences on the Appalachian Trail and John Muir Trail. She also had an InReach which we could examine up close. Pam is convinced she wants one.
We all stood around talking for over an hour. My back began to scream so I had to break the circle and sit down. That seemed to be the signal everyone was waiting for so the crowd broke up and we all headed to bed. We actually made it past dark tonight.
