Wonderland Trail Day 9: Longmire

Aug 17
Mileage: 0
Longmire: 2800 ft


I woke up again at first light after a restless night of sleep in the back of Jen's car.  Come to think of it, I have slept restless this whole trip so far, which is unusual for me especially in the back-country where I sleep very well.  I got up and walked around Longmire for a bit.  It is a peaceful place in the early morning and without the hoards of tourists around.  I went and got my camera to get some pictures before the place got busy.  Jim found me and we walked around looking at stuff and talked about my hike.  I told him at this point I wasn't sure I wanted to finish, but we'll see tomorrow.  It then dawned on me that I was on the south side of the mountain and 2/3 of the way done!  Wow, guess I have walked a long way already!

 

Back of the NPI

 

Sunrise on the mountain

 

Front of NPI

Old gas station and Kenworth

shuttle on display; NPI in back

Jim and I headed to breakfast as Jen was sleeping in, so we talked over coffee.  Jen finally joined us and we ordered and had breakfast.  I really needed to dry everything out in my pack and swap the rest of my stuff out, so we grabbed my pack and spread everything out in the back of Jim's pick-up and I mean everything!
My first-aid kit was soaked through, so ended up throwing most of it away and dried out the gauze pads and a few other items.  The tourists started arriving at Longmire and looking at the truck funny, as they were trying to figure it all out.  Jim and Jen left to go up to Paradise and I hung with my stuff trying to catch up on my journal and flip stuff over to make sure everything was dried out.  The late morning sun was hot and it was a beautiful day!

Jim's pick-up gear drying service

I swapped out the food and my clothes and started packing up my stuff as things were drying out.  A family walked by and the dad asked what I was doing as I had nice stuff so I told him.  His 8 year old daughter swung around to face me and asks me if I'm staying out in the wilderness as there are bears out there, I'm not allowed to be out there!  We all laughed and I told her that I hope not to see any bears at least up close.  It was cute, but I think she jinxed me too!

Mt Rainier

Jim and Jen came back from Paradise saying it was already too crowded, so we finished packing everything up and went to eat lunch.  After that, they wanted to head home and I found out I couldn't check into my room at the NPI until 1600, which left me sitting around for a few hours.  Jim and Jen left and I was awaiting the arrival of a friend who was coming out to hang out and stay the night.

I finally got checked in my room, took a nice long soaking bath and just hung out to relax.  I also wanted to do a load of laundry getting my "camp clothes" clean for the next part of the trail.  So, I hung out on the inn porch and doing laundry. There was a note on my door saying my friend wasn't coming, which made me mad as I could have invited someone else to come out.  Oh well,  I went and had dinner and headed back to the room to finish packing and finally went to bed.

This day and a half off at Longmire was a very good thing.  It rested my feet, dried out my gear, restocked my food and changed out my clothing.  In other words, I had an attitude adjustment!

Wonderland Trail Day 8: Devil's Dream to Longmire

Aug 16
Mileage: 5.8 miles
Devil's Dream: 5060 ft
Longmire: 2800 ft

I woke up around 0700, got dressed and the tent was wet as it was pretty foggy outside but at least it wasn't raining.  I had breakfast with the mosquitoes swarming all around me and started packing up.  I seemed to be having a problem this morning getting going and packing up for what ever reason.  The sun came out and was shining on my tent, so once again while I ate another meal, I let the sun shine on the tent.



I left camp at 0945 with a goal of arriving at Longmire about 1300-1330 and today was mostly downhill except for a climb up the Ramparts.  Today was the first day since day 2 that I left camp without the rain gear on and it felt weird not wearing it.  I had a long sleeve shirt on to keep the bug bites to a minimum.

Right after camp is a canyon that had pretty cool rock formations and it was really deep from the ridge I was standing on.  Passed heaps of people on the trail many of whom smelled like soap and fresh clothing unlike me who hadn't had a shower in 8 days.  I talked with some and other just said hi to others.  One group of 3 were pretty funny and I enjoyed talking with them.  They stayed at the Pyramid Creek campground.  Huh?  That campground is open again?  For those of you who don't know, that area sustained heavy damage during the flood of 2006 and the campground had been closed since then. 

I made it to the Pyramid Creek crossing in about an hour, dropped the pack, took off the long sleeve shirt and had a snack.  The sun was out and it was starting to get pretty warm.  Finally, a nice sunny day and it felt wonderful!  Made it across the creek and came upon Pyramid Creek campground.  It must be open as the signs are up for it.  That's good news for hikers and the park!

 

 Pyramid Creek crossing

Pyramid Creek

Right after passing the campground, came to the Kautz River crossing.  The trail was blocked off and again heavy damage from flooding.  The trail had moved to the left and it was marked with ribbons.  I could see the trail down on the river bed, I just could not find the trail to get down to it.  I walked to the last ribbon and looked around to no avail, so started over and repeated.  However, turning to my right, behind a rock I saw a pole hole and a foot print, and found the trail down.  The ribbon should have been by the rock not on a tree away from it.  Made my way to the log bridge stopping to look at the flood damage, Wow!

 

Kautz Creek

Flood damage by Kautz Creek.  

Look to the right for the trail down.

Safely across the river and back on the trail heading up the Ramparts and ran into a Canadian couple who were out hiking the PCT and decided to add on the WLT!  That's way ambitious!  They were caught in the 5 days of rain as well on the PCT and were happy to see the sun.  Coming down the hill into Longmire, I could now hear the Harley motorcycles screaming along as well as cars.  The trail pops out by the road and when you have been out in the woods for 8 days, your senses are heightened, so smelling car exhaust was not a pleasant experience.

I made it to Longmire at 1315 and started looking for Jen.  I made my way to the National Park Inn (NPI) porch and sat for a while, putting on my sandals.  I cannot tell you how great it felt to do that.  I wanted to go into the restaurant to eat, but wanted to find Jen first.  Longmire was way too crowded and loud for me and I found out it was a free weekend at the park, so no admission.  Around 1430, I headed over by the store and looked for a place to dry out the tent and some other things.  I had the tent spread out all over the grass out back and people looked at me funny and I was daring any of the staff to say anything, but they must be used to it.  The afternoon sun was so hot that it took all of 30 minutes for all parts of my tent to dry, so got that packed away and saw Jen driving around the parking lot, so I waited by the parking lot door of the inn.  Jen and Jim came out Longmire to bring me my food cache.

Jen finally showed up and had checked into their room already, so we had to walk all the way back to her car to get my clothes.  I finally had a shower, but it was short and sweet as it was 1610 and the dining room closed at 1630 for lunch.  We got a table at 1629 and the wait staff was upset about it.  At the NPI restaurant, the food is okay and over priced, the service mediocre and once you realize that you'll get along fine.  If you are expecting something great or in a hurry, try something else.  I ordered a cheeseburger because I was craving salt and its a backpacking tradition!  It tasted good enough that I ate it down pretty fast.

 

Mt Rainier

 Me at Longmire

After lunch, Jen and I went out to her car and changed some things out as well as get the car set up for me to sleep in.  Yes, I had sleep in the car and no I didn't mind as it wasn't a wet cold tent!  We also moved the car before dinner at 2000.  Jen and I had a late dinner hoping Jim would join us, but he didn't show up yet.  Jim finally showed up and we talked about the trip and he walked me out to the car and helped me get settled.

All in all a good day and I was happy to have a rest from the grind of the trail and for a chance to have my feet out of my boots for a few days.  Best of all, it wasn't raining!