Wonderland trail 2019 Day three Mystic lake GC to Cataract Valley camp

This morning we had more fun with our group camp roomies. He decided to dump more food, "literally" from his pack. About a half dozen top Ramen packs minus the plastic wraps were dumped in a pile in the dirt. My husband told him that was unacceptable and that he needed to pick it up and put it in his trash bag. I won't tell you where he eventually put it but it wasn't in his "pack it out" trash bag. This really set a disturbance into my morning. Needless to say I was glad when they left camp, so we could enjoy our solitude. I felt badly for the young boy as the man had set an aggressive mileage trip for the boys' first backpacking adventure. I hope he survived and will find a love for hiking and backpacking into his adult life.

We stopped by Mystic lake to enjoy the view.

Looking back to the lake❤

Climbing up the saddle from Mystic lake I stopped and asked my husband to take photo of me.

More wildflowers.

Over the saddle to the meadow.

Views and wildflowers what could be better!

We stopped by the stream for a lunch break.

We arrived at Dick creek and it's rope climb, uneventful until I tripped on the rocks after the log bridge😏

Making our way down the Carbon river trail

and across the Suspension bridge.

Views from the bridge.

Time for my husband to cross, as the sign says it's a one at a time crossing.

This side of the river was so lush and green compared to the rocky hike down the other side. I felt like we had come into a fairy land. So beautiful!

It's a steep high step trail to Cataract Valley camp.

I was very happy to see this sign.

I giggled my way to sleep to the sounds of my husband reading from the Patrick McManus book "The grasshopper trap" & to the two very giggly young women in the site across from us.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/wcGM3-G9BWA

Garmin stats:

8.03 miles

1936 ascent

2887 descent

Elevation profile:

Trip summary:

21.02 - miles

5915 feet - ascent

5971 feet - descent

Elevation profile:

Wonderland trail 2019 Day two Sunrise camp to Mystic lake GC

Today we would hike to Mystic Lake, the sun was up and warm. I was hopeful of some good views at the top of Skyscraper ridge. 

Trail junction

Looking back towards where we'd come from.

Wildflowers and blue skies before us.

Just before we got to the ridge a Marmot was on the trail in front of us.

Little Tahoma and Mount Rainier behind me in the photo below.

I took a photo of Rainier without me in it, not long afterwards we heard a loud sound and looked at the mountain and saw an avalanche coming down from a higher glacier. Lucky me, I got a "before" and "during" photo.

After we took our photos of Rainier we sat and ate a snack. As my husband was looking back towards Berkeley park he saw something dark moving on a lower grassy slope. We got out the binoculars out and sure enough it was a black bear, as we looked again later we saw a much smaller one. Apparently there is a resident Sow and cub in the Sunrise area. Yay two bear, last year we saw zero.

On to Granite creek for a lunch break and water bottle fill up and filter time.

Granite creek

We hiked down hill alongside the Winthrop Glacier for a while.

Crossing the White River bridge

Travelling the spine trail on the glacial moraine.

Then it was time to cross a small stream and side hill before heading up into the forest.

A nice bridge with handrails???

Finally we made it to our camp for the night. We were excited because we had a group camp site all to ourselves. Room to spread out!

After we got camp set up a man and a boy came into our camp and asked it they could stay at our site. They had a permit for Dick creek, they were doing the Northern loop and he didn't think they would make it there that night. If it weren't for the young boy I would have said no, but because of the boy we said yes. Crazy guy, it seemed to be a spontaneous trip, I don't know how much backpacking he'd ever done, it was the first trip for the boy. Everything was new and they had way too much food in their packs, he started just dumping their food out all over the ground. He asked us if we wanted any, we took a few snacks that he offered. Just before bed, he put his very large trash bag in the tent with them. A back country - bear country no no. Oh well so much for a nice time to ourselves.

Relive video of our route:

https://youtu.be/j2dQ14z6gQI

Garmin stats:

9.18 miles

1965 ascent

2999 descent

Elevation profile:

Trip summary:

12.99 - miles

3979 feet - ascent

3084 feet - descent

Elevation profile: