Wonderland Trail

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Day 3 (Tue, 7/29). Carbon River to Mystic Lake ( 5600ft elev). Backpacked 4.90 miles with 2971 ft gain/2390 ft loss.

a. Optional Side Trip (After Camp): Carbon Glacier / Mineral Mountain. 3.60 miles with 1450 ft gain/loss

We got up around 0500 and headed out around 0610-0640. I left about 0630. For the entire trip, it's up to backpacker(s) when to leave the camp site. I was usually the slowest from the 5th day and left the camp site last. The trail is well defined and established, so there was no danger of getting lost. Our goal was to meet together at the next camp site. So, it was sort of solo backpacking (backpack at own pace) during most of trips. It was another fantastic day. Carbon Glacier was less than 0.5 miles after crossing the suspension bridge. At first, I did not know it was a Glacier but as I walked along the bank, I realized that the Glacier was covered with dirt. I spent about 1/2 hour looking at the grandeur Glacier and water flows before going into the woods.

Around 5200 ft elev or so, there was a huge meadow (I called it "1000 acre meadow" like in Olympics) with the Mt Rainier. The pictures did not come out as I wanted but it was spectacular (but was bad with the bugs (skeeters)). I spent some time making a self video. I took some break going up the slope and looking back at 1000 acre meadow. Also, met a couple of group (3 and 5) backpackers who looked joyous and full of energy (going downhill). Going up the hill, I was very slow. My typical dayhike of 15 miles with 5000 ft elev gain is moderate but 5 miles with 3000 ft elev gain of backpacking felt a lot tougher. I felt like I had lots of energy but could not move faster with a heavy pack.

At the highest pt for the day, there was a lake right off the trail (actually, I missed it but stopped on the next day on the way to my solo dayhike). It had a nice reflection of the Mt Rainier. Then, the trail switchbacked down to the valley, Mystic Lake, with the views of cliffy mountains (that I summited all of them next day) above Mystic Lake, Mineral Mt, and Mt Rainier. The camp sites at Mystic Lake was about 0.4 miles below the Lake. It had an excellent Group Camp site. Most of us arrived there before noon. We went up to Mystic Lake for dunking that felt really great. The bottoms were really muddy as usual for the Alpine Lakes. We washed our clothes, cooled off, and sun bathed/dried.

After dinner, Bill and I headed to Mineral Mt side trip (1710-1940). I will call it class 2. There was no trail, so, we had to do some bushwhacking. The ranger at the Mystic Lake gave me a good direction how to get up there. At the summit, we had excellent views of the Mt Rainier, Carbon Glacier, Mystic Lake, and the cliffy peaks above the Mystic Lake. On the way back, we found a trail along the ridge and dilapidated cabin logs (only the clear cut foundation frames left). Apparently, there was a structure and trail before. Basically, walk along the ridge till close to the Mineral Mt base and cross the creek, and off-trail to the summit.