Wonderland trail: Day 5 of 12

August 25, day 5

Mowich lake to Golden lakes.

The clouds that moved in while we were at Dick creek stayed with us. It was cold when we left Mowich lake.

We had a couple of trees to climb over on this section of the trail.

We were now on the part of the Wonderland trail that I haven't seen for 30 years. The areas around Sunrise and Mowich, we'd done on our Northern loop and Mother mountain loop trips. My emotions were high as we headed down to the Mowich river camp & crossing.

The Mowich river bridge was one of the new ones added. I was glad this one was here too.

Mowich river camp shelter.

We picked our way through the river rock to the next bridge. Can you see the trail or the cairns?

Hand rails are a nice thing.

Old log boardwalk.

Our second log to climb over.

A very huge mushroom.

I put my boot by it for scale.

Quite the rocky crossing.

Looking down from the rocky trail.

Then we were following a blueberry heaven section of the trail.

One of the ponds at Golden lakes, by the time we got here it was raining.

Golden lakes, Sunset park ranger cabin.

All tucked away from the weather for the night, Golden lakes wasn't anything like I remembered. It's grown up quite a bit. I remember it being much more open, but a sunny sky would probably help with that impression.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/rwNbg0WVwjA

Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 11.25
total ascent - 2477 feet
total descent - 2969 feet

Day 6 to be continued

Wonderland trail: Day 4 of 12

August 24, day 4
Dick creek to Mowich lake.

Today's hike began with a rope climb down to the log crossing.

We hiked along the Carbon glacier.

We stopped for a bit by the Carbon river suspension bridge. We wouldn't be going across it on this trip. We did it in July when we hiked the Mother mountain loop, you can see the bridge & watch a video of my husband crossing it in this POST.

As we headed down to the Carbon river crossing we enjoyed the Huckleberries/Blueberries/plants/heart rocks and bridges along the trail.

A new bridge was built since we were here in July.

A familiar crossing.

Much drier this time, in July I waded in nearly knee deep water.

Time to head up to Mowich lake.

More heart rocks on the trail.

A rest break before heading up Ipsut pass. We've never hiked up it. Each time we've been here we've hiked down from the pass.

Looking down to where we'd come from.

As we neared the top of the pass, my legs began cramping. Thankfully my husband got out our trusty mustard bottle and I took some swallows all the rest of the way to Mowich lake. My legs were not happy. I'd rather go down Ipsut pass, uphill was tough.

Mowich lake.

The mighty "leg cramping" hiker made it to our night's destination.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/OekKkiG0Yq8

Garmin stats:

total miles hiked - 11.21

total ascent - 2900 feet

total desecnt - 2674 feet

Day 5 to be continued