Day #3
I entered the early entry lottery back in March, 2022 and ended up with pretty much first pick of an itinerary. Pretty darn lucky.
Taking the last week of July for 9 days with a route heading counter clockwise, we started at White River so we would only have to drop one cache at Mowich the day before and then have my husband meet us at Longmire for the other cache.
The reports from WTA, the NPS, and rangers at all stations I visited the week prior made a huge difference in whether we changed our itinerary the day before.
HAZARDS *** More details will follow in specific reports for each section but in general we were aware of the following areas prior to leaving for the 9 day circuit.
Mowich-At the time we started the Mowich River both north and south had no footbridge. The north would have to be navigated by bushwhacking and finding an alternate way using downed timber across the river. The south would need to be forded. We planned to get our feet wet.
Snow- With the late spring snow, we took our micro spikes and expected to get wet. I wore my trail runners most of the time wet and went through several pair of socks.
Heat- What we never expected was the heat in the 80's-90's that started the first day of our trip.
Bugs- My friends were bit up!
After a restless night in the wind my nerves were up over the crossing at Mowich. Adding to my nerves, the previous night two brothers had also tried to cross at this point by walking and holding the tilted railing and failed, only to return to camp very shook up.
As described above, the North Mowich had a bridge that was close to impossible to cross. I tried to butt scoot across it at first and soon discovered the railing was in a challenging position to lift a leg with a body and back pack over it.
We scouted up river where we were told there was a some passible logs but it turned out not the best option for all of us with one log an issue of stability and strength.
Next, we bushwhacked down river and found a more suitable crossing, not perfect, not without some risk but, suitable. All in all it took us about 1 hour to cross the first one with all the attempts and combined decision making.
After a peaceful 20 minutes across the delta, the next crossing on the south Mowich had no logs so we scouted up stream 200 yards or more until we found a more braided area of the river to cross. At 9:30 am, the river was up past my knees, at times mid-thigh and took poles fully extended with three points of contact to cross safely. One bad step would have been a disaster.
Bushwhacking our way back down river we intersected the trail once again and made our way to Golden Lakes BC camp later than we had anticipated.
10.36 miles (+2400, -2400) my watch needed a recharge
Comments
bentley-edelman on Wonderland Trail, Sunset Park and Golden Lakes, Wonderland Trail - Mowich to Longmire, Mowich River
Gees, those crossings were insane! Especially the Lower Crossing. Man oh man. Amazing trip report.
Posted by:
bentley-edelman on Sep 22, 2022 11:45 AM
Lisa Elliott on Wonderland Trail, Sunset Park and Golden Lakes, Wonderland Trail - Mowich to Longmire, Mowich River
This trip around The Wonderland threw us about every curveball it could have!
Posted by:
Lisa Elliott on Sep 28, 2022 01:39 PM