Wonderland Trail

Surprisingly, some folks do not know that the spectacularly beautiful Wonderland Trail is the 94 mile hiking trail that encircles Mt. Rainier. To camp along the Wonderland Trail, one needs reservations from the Park Service. This year, they received over 1,000 applications, including one from me. There are only about 50 reservable campsites each night. Due to the length of the trips on the applications, they can only accept less than half of the applications. But I got my 9th choice, out of 22 options on my application. Woo-hoo!

When the opportunity presented itself last Sunday, I hiked Mt. Si (8 miles round trip, 3200 feet gain and loss) with a 40-lb pack as a training hike and to see if I am ready for the Wonderland trail (where I will average 10 miles per day with 2800 feet gain and loss per day). My legs were pretty sore for about 3 days, so, no, I am not ready. :)