The "Grand Dame" is the name the local natives have given to "Mt. Rainier". She indeed is a grand dame. Just a sight of her produces a thrill to the inner most part of a hiker or climber's soul.

Hiking the "Wonderland Trail" is the ultimate goal of a hiker as summitting Everest is to the climber or marathon running is to the runner. Once you decide to do this trek you must be willing to prepare for it months before the trek.

Our small hiking group, composed of two dear friends, my DH and me, had planned to do this hike for over a year. We prepared our bodies to endure the harsh 98 miles around the base of the mountain. We figured it would take us ten days of hard hiking but with spectacular views as a reward. We planned the menu. We packed our backpacks as light as we could, mine came up to 55 pounds.


We packed the clothes we thought we neededfor all kinds of weather and with great anticipation we started our epic expedition.


Day one found us starting the journey with a light rain...we are experienced hikers and we had done three weeks long trek in this continent and abroad, so we knew we could endure the light rain. We hiked, set up camp, ate dinner and went to bed.

The next day we had a 12 hard miles planned, which in normal weather we could have done it in 6 hours...but the "Grand Dame" had other plans for us. It started rainning at midnight and it never stopped nor eased up for the whole following day.
My DH already soaked before the day even began


We had to endure the worst rainy weather we had ever envisioned this early in the trek. I was told that on that day Seattle had a record high rain...well...it was the same up in the mountains. For 5 hours we dragged ourselves up and down the hills, covering one mile per hour...just being miserable in the rain but just putting one foot in front of the other our team went on. The higher we went the colder it got. We were well prepared for normal rain and cold weather, but not for this cruel kind of soggy cold. Even our gortex boots became so wet that ithey gave us the sensation of walking in pools of water the whole time. It was at this point that we decided to stop for a bit of food and put on yet another layer of clothing...soon after we stopped our two team mates started shivering...they are physicians and they knew and we knew that we had to call the hiking off...we could not be foolish and move on to the next camp site since all our clothes, including our backpacks were damp or soaked (granted that we all had waterproof backpack covers)

It was no small task to convince our hiking buddies that physically we could not go another 6 miles to camp and start all over again the next day..so wisely we decided to walk back to the main road and get a ride to our cars. We changed clothes and drove back home to re-plan our vacation and start replanning this hike for next year. As we went to reclaim our cached food, we found fresh snow just a few hundred feet above where we stopped.

So how did we redeemed the rest of the time we had?

We hiked 13 miles the next day and climbed Tiffany Mt.
Here I am with my friend Grace on top of Mt. Tiffany ( 9 hours up...4 hours down)


We hiked to the Little Larch lakes, with an elevation gain of 2,000ft in less than two miles...that was a hard task considering the weight of the backpacks and already tired legs.


But this is what greeted us at the top...


We took on the 7400 and some odd foot 5th of July Mountain


View from the top...and the rain was still chasing us


and we saw a rainbow...


We met up with our dear friends and mentors in Seattle and while there we had a Tetsujin sighting...sorry no pictures yet of our fabulous lunch...

It was a different vacation than we had anticipated...but a grand time we all had...we hiked well over 40 hours in 6 days, we climbed two mountains, we had a taste of the Wonderland Trail and we spent six days in the wildwoods with wild friends.

See ya next year you.."Grand Dame"

Nancy - spectacular photos!  I agree that you made the wise choice, setting back when signs of hypothermia began.  Sorry the rain made you change your plans, but it looks like you still had a wonderful hiking experience!  I can only dream of such things.  Thank you for taking me along on the journey!

Thanks for sharing your adventure & photos,  sorry bout the excessive rain  

Thanks for the beautiful pictures, butterfly lady!  You sure have some spectacular country up there - I'd love to hike with you someday!  (But not in the rain.) 

 

 

Lovely photos.  You made the best lemonade out of lemons.  Go get her next year.

wow!!  posai as always you amaze me........sorry your plans were so hindered, but it doesnt surprise me that you made the best of it............thank you for sharing your positive attitude with us!!

Mari, I'm sorry your long anticipated Wonderland Trail Hike was interrupted so early by foul weather. I can't help but think though that that was divine intervention to prevent to long hike from happening this year and to redirect your hike elsewhere this time.

Beautiful pics of your hike though. Such an amazing world we live in!