Mileage: 10.4 miles with trail detour
Carbon River: 3195 ft
Mowich Lake: 4900 ft
I didn't sleep well again but somehow didn't hear the alarm go off at 0500. I awoke to heavy rain, I'm guessing the sun goddess didn't want to come out today. I got dressed, ate breakfast and packed up in the rain. Funny, the rain will slow down, but boy it sure does know when I'm trying to pack the tent up and it just starts coming down. I left camp at 0800 and was excited to get to Mowich with my mind made up to move with a purpose today as I wanted to get there between 1400-1600.
The waterfall and river by Carbon River CG
Because of the trail closure just outside of camp, I had to detour back to suspension bridge to cross it again, which I love doing as it gives you a different perspective of the river and its banks. Headed up the NLT (Northern Loop Trail) for 1.5 miles. The NLT was pretty flat for the most part I was on it but it did have a few rolling sections.
Met up with 3 guys that were headed to Mystic but stayed somewhere else and decided to head back to their car because of the weather. We crossed the detour of 3 log bridges across the Carbon River. They headed uphill to the WLT and took off. I stopped to pull some layers off as it stopped raining for once.
One of the 3 log bridges on the detour
I was pretty excited when it dawned on me that I was now on the north side of the mountain instead of east or northeast. The forest was thick and at times almost seemed like a rain forest. This part of the WLT is really flat and I motored on it! I made it to the Ipsut Junction in about 2.4 hours, which I thought was pretty good time for 4.4 miles. This section of the trail had some damage from the 2006 flood.
Carbon River is clogged with felled trees
The sign at the junction said 'Ipsut Pass 3.5 miles and Mowich Lake 5 miles'. In all fairness, I have to ask how the NPS measures the distances posted on the trail signs? There were many times I began to wonder if they used a straight ruler on a map as this turned out to be a very long 5 mile hike.
The trail from the junction went up and was gradual and the forest gave way to rain forest fauna. It was beautiful. It started raining again but I was under the forest canopy so it didn't bother me that much.
I was beginning to wonder where the pass was as the climb up was getting steeper and the canopy thinned out a lot.
Waterfall along the trail
Bushy Trail heading up to Ipsut Pass
Some cool looking fungi
I met a young guy who smelled nice and we chatted for a bit. He was on day 1 and seemed pretty excited. He was headed to Carbon River so I told him about the trail detour. He didn't know and I was still surprised that the rangers were not telling people about it. I asked him how far to the pass and he told me about a mile and that I had the really steep part to climb. What!!! The really steep part and I am on steep trail!!! About that time, a guy came down the hill with a 2 year old on his shoulders and 3 more very young kids behind him. He said that the whole family was out here doing the whole WLT! Wow, very young children out here in this weather humping through the mud! They were on day 10 and I repeated the detour to him as well. I offered him money to carry me up to the pass and he replied that he was just about to ask me to carry him a ways! We all departed laughing...in the pouring down rain.
I came to an opening and the canopy of the forest was gone and all of a sudden it quit raining!!! Could this be it? No more rain? Then a small patch of blue sky appeared and I grabbed a picture of it in case I needed it to remember what it looked like. I still had no view of the mountain, but was happy with no rain. It was about that time I realized what the really steep part just meant. It meant almost straight up and this part of the trail is rocky and very bushy with Devil's Club. I might add, Devil's Club that was over my head.This part of the trail is Mt Si on steroids and is literally almost straight up and has lots of switchbacks. I had to mountain goat up that and it was slow going. I noticed the fog was moving back in and knew what that meant...yup more rain and it dumped down on me unlike anything I had gone through so far.
Trail on the Ipsut Pass; looking back down
As I got closer to the top, I noticed that I was starting to get wet underneath my Gortex jacket and was wondering how water was getting in. My biggest worry now was hypothermia as the temp was dropping with the weather and altitude gain. Finally I made it to the pass and the sign said I had 2 miles to go. I was almost running just to heat up and get to camp.
Lack of signs around Mowich Lake made it hard to figure out which way to go as there are multiple road access points on the trail. I made it to camp at 1530 and thought about this; I hiked 4.4 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes and it took me 5 hours to hike 6 miles! Wow, that 'really steep part' cost me heaps of time.
I looked around for Dawn but didn't find her so headed for the new toilet which has an overhang to find 4 people huddled under it. They had finished the NLT & WLT in 12 days and were waiting for a ride. I quickly got my pack off as I knew I hypothermia was close to setting in as I was a cold,wet and teeth chattering puppy. I ripped apart my pack to find my other clothes and got them on pronto.
Dawn finally showed up and it seemed really confusing to me as what I needed done, finally deciding to get food and get in the car and turn on the heater! I needed to get warm, eat and change clothes. The rest could wait. It was also still raining very hard, so when it stopped we would jump out of the car to get my pack, set up the tent or swap out my stuff and when the rain returned we would race back to the car and turn on the heat. It was crazy and miserable at the same time. Also, discovered in my haste to leave my last camp, that I left behind a tent stake, so I improvised with a stick.
Me in a race against the rain
setting up the tent
One advantage of having friends bring in your food cache was she brought me some really fresh good food and drinks. Our original plan since Mowich has picnic tables was to have picnic and that didn't happen with the rain storms. I had a Cobb salad, fresh fruit and some baked goods from the wheat-gluten free bakery in Kent for dinner. Yum!
I really wanted to go to Carbonado so I could dry out with my tent and but my friend had to work the next day, so that plan didn't work out. I really didn't want to spend another night in a cold wet tent.
Another advantage of having friends come out is bringing out fresh clothes, so got the food swapped out and then the clothes. After I changed and gave her everything I wanted to get rid off, it was time for her to go. I remember thinking as I saw her drive off was "why am I still sitting here in the pouring down rain?" That was a tough moment for me.
The four were still waiting so I went to talk with them for a while. I fessed up that I had a sat-phone if they needed to call for another ride to let me know. Another rain storm hit after that with a torrential down pour just as I got in the tent. One of the women came over to ask to call her mom for a ride. We got a hold of her mom and her brother was on the way. It was now 1930 and they had been sitting there since 1330! One of the guys' wife was supposed to pick them up and hadn't shown up yet. When the rain stopped, I went back to drink a root beer that Dawn left and talked with them some more. Finally, I left heading back to my tent and possibly some sleep. I fell asleep hoping for the sun, some better weather and at 2200 the sound of four people running to a pickup truck. Their ride had finally arrived after sitting there for 8.5 hours! (Note to any of the four, if you read this leave a comment or email as to what happened to that guy's wife and glad you all finally got picked up)
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