[at-l] Washington State- Wonderland Trail and Climbing Mtns.

[runhorton@juno.com (runhorton@juno.com)]

On July 29 th, Clark Zealand  ( a day after he had just finished 3rd in
the national 50 mile trail Championships ) and I climbed Mt. St. Helens. 
 It was a tough climb and it was socked in with no views at the top.  

On July 30th, we went down and cimbed Mt. Adams.   It was also a very
tough climb with outstanding views from the top.   We carried ice axes
and instep crampons but did not need them.

On July 31st, we went down to Oregon and climbed Mt. Hood.  It was very
wierd climbing the mountain and going by hundreds of skiers and
snowboarders going all over the mountain.   They have skiing year-around
there.  The climb was very steep but not technical until the last  500
feet.  We had to go over a couple of crevases, go up a knife edge of
snow, cross over another deeeeeeeeeeeeep crevase and then go straight (
almost or it looked that way ) a snow shoot.  There were occasional rocks
falling as well.  Needless to say we used both crampons and Ice axes. 
The last part was exciting.

We went back to Seattle and rested for two days.

On Friday, August 2, Scott and Leah Jurek, Clark and I drove out to Mt.
Ranier Nat. Park to do the Wonderland Trail.  It is a 93 mile trail that
circles Mt. Ranier.   Backpacker magazine had voted it the number 1
hiking trail in the nation the last two years in a row.  It is
SPECTACULAR/////////////////////////////////

On Friday, August 3, we ran/walked from Longmire to Mowich Lake, it was
about 32.5 miles.  It took us 8 hours and 28 minutes and had a gain of
10410 feet.

On Sat., we went from Mowich Lake to the White River campground, just
over 30 miles in 6 hours and 40 minutes with a gain of 8430.

On Sunday, we finished the adventure as we went from White River back to
Longmire, just over 30 miles in 7 hours and 28 minutes with a gain of
6920 feet.

With a gain of over 25,000 feet in 93 miles it was a very challenging
trip.

The first two days we had great views around us but not of the summit of
Mt. Rainier ( I had climbed Mt. Rainer with Doug McKeever, Charlie Hesse
and two others a week earlier ).

On the last day we had good view of the summit for most of th4e day.  The
elevation of the trail was between 3 and 7 thousand feet.   

The trail was the most beautiful trail that I have ever run on.   It was
not very rocky in most places, very wide, and very soft.   The trail work
was unbelievable.   The flowers were awesome.   San Juan flowers are a
little prettier though. 
The trail had very good signs at intersections.

Leah Jurek met us at the end of each day at the campgrounds with their VW
Vanagon.  We all slept in that, but you could have slept in a tent in the
campground.

I would highly encourage all of you to someday hike/run this WONDERFUL
trail.   I feel blessed to have had the privilege to do it.

In Christ
David Horton