Hiking the Wonderland Trail in 2014 was by far the longest and toughest backpacking trip that I have ever done.  It was nothing short of amazing and I was very lucky to have shared it with some great friends.  I also met some really nice people along the way that made the trip even better. Each leg of our nine day journey had incredible gifts to share such as glaciers; suspension bridges; fellow hikers like myself; all the blueberries you can eat and wildlife just to name a few. We had to share tents(small campsites on the WT) and had two food drops – One at Mowich and one at Longmire, so I was able to scale down my backpack and take my Mountainsmith Mayhem 35 Recycled All Terrain Backpack, Pinon Green backpack.  I love it because it’s bulletproof and has a lot of straps to hang things on, although a tad heavy.  I used my Camelbak Eddy Bottle (0.75-Liter/24-Ounce,Navy) with the Camelbak Eddy Hands-Free Adapter because there are a lot of water sources on the WT so I didn’t have to carry too much.  This worked out great. One of the greatest things I experienced on this trip was seeing a glacier up close.  Simply amazing!

Here is a rough overview of our trip:       My Gear

Gear	BRAND / MODEL
TENT	SHARED TENT N/A
SLEEPING BAG	Snugpak Chrysalis 2 Sleeping Bag, Chestnut Red
BACKPACK	Mountainsmith Mayhem 35 Recycled All Terrain Backpack, Pinon Green
SLEEPING PAD	Therm-A-Rest NeoAir Trekker Air Mattress, Pistachio, Regular
CLOSED CELL PAD	Thermarest – RidgeRest SOLite Pad – Medium – Silver Sage
COOKSET	Snow Peak Titanium Mini Solo Cook Set
STOVE	MSR POCKET ROCKET STOVE

http://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/upload/trailmap-2.pdf

http://www.wonderlandtrailguide.com/ Wonderland Trail Information

 

 

 

We watered up at a cool little pond behind this ranger cabin.  The setting for the cabin was amazing.  I would love to stay at the cabin sometime but doubt that would ever happen nor would it be allowed.  In front of the cabin was a small grass field that was somewhat boggy and had walking boards through it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This giant black bear was dining on blueberries in a field about 200 feet off the trail.  He paid no attention to us whatsoever and in face at one point he looked up and glanced at us and kept on gorging on blueberries.  We stood on the trail and watched him for awhile and then continued on our way.  This is by far the largest black bear I’ve ever seen in the wild or in captivity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of my favorite campsites for a few reasons.  It was a short hiking day and we had a lot of time to relax and hang out after we got our tents set up.  The campsite was outstanding because it was perfectly flat and nestled in next to a hillside.  Once we got our camp set up we hiked a very short distance to the old motel site and relaxed in the sun and explored a little bit of the area.

 

 

 

This shelter couldn’t have come at a better time!  The day prior it started raining in the afternoon and didn’t stop until the morning.  We were all soaked that night as well as all of our equipment.  We arrived at this empty shelter and were grateful because we took all of our gear out to the nearby glacial creek bed and set it out in the sun to dry.  What a fantastic day!