It’s 0545 again but today I stay in my tent. It rained last night. I Get out of the sleeping bag and get dressed. My clothes are dry, cold and I stink bad. I pack all my “need to stay dry” gear into my dry bag. Put on my shoes and I’m out of the tent. Get my food bag from the bear box and start on another 4 star breakfast. Today I will make HOT Maple & brown sugar oatmeal and cold Strawberry Sensation Carnation Breakfast Essentials Powder. I’ll drink the cold part on the trail. Take down the tent and pack the wet fly, the wet ground cloth & the rest of my gear.
How to get from Mowich Lake to Carbon River is the question. If you stay on the Wonderland Trail you travel 8.5 miles with 981′ elevation gain 2650′ elevation loss. If you take the Spray Park Trail you travel 8.1 miles. From the camp site at 5,000′ you drop down to 4,750 and work your way up to 6352′. SNOW… Its August 31 and I get to spend time walking on snow. Then you drop 3,200′ of Elev. to the Carbon River. After you cross the bridge, Mystic Lake is only 4.9 miles up a steep hill.
Lunch time. The Carbon Glacier is the biggest glacier outside Alaska. It is 5.7 miles long, 700′ thick, and volume of 0.2 cubic miles. I took :30+ min for lunch. I talk to a ranger, dry my ground cloth, the tent fly, take off my shoes, let my feet breath, eat some tuna fish and trail mix. I was also able to watch as the glacier was dry calving.
Back on the trail the ranger was correct, 4 miles and 2,835 of Elev. gain. Up hill all the way. Look everyone, another great looking lake. Too bad all the tent sites are another .2 miles down the trail. My plan….. use my 550 paracord to build a clothesline and dry all my wet gear. I have just enough rope to wrap one tree. Next time….
I put on my camp shoes and relax. 13.75 miles, 4,875′ Elev gain, 4,370′ Elev loss, 8:59 hours.