We did it! We completed 9 whole days on the Wonderland Trail, starting and ending at Longmire. Before I dive into any stories, I just want to say my boys, ages 10 and 13, are rock stars. Frickin’ rock stars. Were there tears? Maybe. But we made it around that glorious mountain with good spirits overall and no injuries. Such a miracle and a blessing.
It’s over a week later now that I’m writing this, and I think about the trail every day. It started out as “just a hike,” but every day the gratitude for this precious time, the experiences with my boys, and the interesting people we met grew. By the end I was legitimately sad to be leaving the trail. I tried to savor every last moment, all the while Soren plowed ahead spouting comments such as “Can’t wait to get out of here!” and “Almost there! I want a milkshake!” So yes, I tried.
Logistics first. I’ve gotten so many questions about how we did this hike. Were there permits? How did you get said permits? How heavy was your pack? How much food did you have to carry? How many miles did you have to walk per day? Was there cell service? What water filters did you use? Do you still hate trekking poles? These questions made me realize how much research I did over many, many months. Let’s start with permits.
Wonderland Permits
Short answer to permits: Yes, you need a permit. How to get a permit? Luckily there are options.
Option #1:
You apply for a permit early when the lottery opens up and hope your number gets drawn. This year applicants could apply (and pay a $6 fee) between February 21 and March 7th. A week or two later you will be notified of your application status, winner or loser, and if successful, you will be given a date you can log on and start creating your itinerary. We had a good spot in line, so to speak, and were able to create most of the itinerary we wanted. More on that later. Overall I’ve heard the chances of success are low, but it really just depends. We won on our first try. I’ve dutifully applied for other permits (hi there, Enchantments) and have been unsuccessful every time.
When you apply, think if there might be friends that want to go with you. That way you can all apply and see if someone gets lucky. Be aware, however, that single sites have a max of 5 people. Group sites can accommodate up to 12, but not every camp has a group site. A complete circuit is totally doable as a group though, you just have to plan more carefully.
For dates on applications this coming year, check recreation.gov and mark your calendar.
Option #2:
Walk-up permit: If you did not get an early permit, or you simply missed the whole application window, there are options to get camping permits the day of your desired hike OR the day before. To me this whole business sounds very risky and tear inducing, BUT many people I met on the trail got their permit this way. The trick? You need to be first in the line, ideally the day before your hike, so you have the most options.
What does this mean? It means you are at either Sunrise, Longmire, White River or Carbon River ranger stations about an hour and a half to two hours before they open. I know, sounds awful, but apparently it works. The odds of you obtaining a complete Wonderland circuit are very high if you follow those rules. I’m sure others have been lucky later in the day, but if you want the best sites and hope to avoid horrendously long days (one group I passed had a 17 mile day thrown in there, yikers), get there early. Oh yeah, the stations open at 7:30am. So fun.
Option #3:
Wait until late April when the complete reservation system opens up and it becomes a free for all for sites. Obviously most of the coveted spots during the best weeks of the year are taken, but there might be enough there to make a partial trek or visit other sections of the park. The Northern Loop is extremely popular as are the sites around Spray Park, Summerland and Sunrise to see the wild flowers. Spots pop up all season as people re-arrange plans or simply don’t show up for their reservations, so keep checking. Even now I can see online there are campsites available for one or two night excursions.
How did it work for us?
So like I said, I really did have a great spot in the reservation line, but for some reason I could not get a complete circuit to work for the dates I wanted. Sure, I could have checked other dates and continued to mess around with itineraries, but I was trying my darndest to make the dates work around Jason’s work and our anniversary in August. So I did the best I could and booked as far ’round the horn as I could get, Longmire to White River, and then hoped we could do a walk-up fixaroo the day before our scheduled hike and close the loop. Risky? Yes. But the more I read about the walk-up system, I grew more confident this plan would work. Spoiler alert: it did.
And how does one obtain access to said permit once secured?
Oddly, every permit has to be picked up in-person. That seems weird to me in this digital age, but you literally have to be present at one of the aforementioned ranger stations to pick up a physical copy of your permit, even if completely booked online. And, you can only pick up your permit the day of OR the day before, much like the walk-up system. I’m sure there is a good reason behind all this, but it’s slightly inconvenient. For us, that meant staying a night at Cougar Rock campground the night before our hike because we knew we needed to get there a day ahead for the permit re-arrangement. Ah well, all part of the fun.
But in the end, you have your permit, whichever manner it was secured, and the mountain is yours.
Mileage
Deciding how much mileage to do is a very personal choice. Our typical day hikes are anywhere from 6 to 12 miles, and we have done a 13 miler on a backpacking trip before, so pushing it with 10-12 mile days seemed doable for us. Also I did want to complete the trail in a reasonable amount of time, so an 8-day trip was what I was hoping for, but planned for 9 just in case. In the end we did wind up with a 9 day itinerary (had a couple of low-mileage days), plus a crazy 14 miler, but that’s just how the site availability worked out.
On trail we inquired about other people’s itineraries. I’d say most were on a similar plan, but a few were shorter and a few were doing 10-12 day jaunts.
Think about what you can reasonably accomplish and see if you can create an itinerary to accommodate (see end of blog for resources that can help you with that).
trail sustenance (FOOD caching)
This is probably the second most frequent question I get, and one of the biggest concerns I had before I went.
How do you bring enough food on the trail?
Look, I’m no super experienced backpacker. Before this trip I had never been on a trek long enough where I needed to worry about any food that was not already crammed into my already overstuffed pack. I legit had to research this. No joke, at first I thought maybe I could do this with either no caching or just one re-supply. Remember, I thought Jason was coming with me. The food he can carry is endless. I’d be fine.
Well, once the realization hit that this extended hike was just not going to work for Jason’s schedule, I had to rethink everything. In hindsight I’m so glad I did, because NOT caching food is dumb. You want to cache food, trust me. The park is ever so kind to stash away your little stockpile and have it all ready for you when you pass through. How cool is that?
Of course this takes more logistics. You need to decide how much food to carry on you at any one time, and how much you want to pick up. Since I estimated 9 days (remember I still wasn’t sure how many days I was looking at before I attempted my walk-up wild card dance), but I hoped that 3, 3 and 3 would be a reasonable assumption. Started with 3 days of food in my pack and each subsequent pick-up had an additional 3, plus a few extra fun heavy snacks that could be consumed right away. Soda, cookies, can o’ margarita…..
Where can you cache food?
Remember those ranger stations I mentioned? Yeah, any of those. Longmire, Carbon River (which is then delivered to Mowich), Sunrise, and White River. Drop-off options include self-delivery at any of these locations or mailing them direct. Given I live in the state and mailing large, heavy buckets sounded awfully expensive, we used that free day before our hike to take a long and slow drive all around the mountain dropping off buckets. First one went to Carbon River where we planned to do permit shenanigans anyway, and then we went up and around to White River before driving back around to Longmire.
I’m not going to dive into what food to pack. That is a discussion for another day and has been covered by a million other websites anyway. I will say winners for us were Top Ramen with dehydrated veggies I made myself, dehydrated potato packets, loads of dried fruit, oatmeal with PB powder (so good!), Nut Butter cookies, gummy worms, and spicy meat sticks. Next time we will probably do less of the Mountain House and other mainstream meals as they are not only expensive, but we actually got sick of them. Twenty-cent packs of ramen for the win!
Packing your Bag
How heavy was my bag?
First off, invest in one of those hand held luggage weighing thingies (I do know English, sort of) that you can get on Amazon. I meant to use it for international travel but turned out to be priceless for gauging pack weight. It’s SO easy to go over 30lbs. You really don’t want to be over 30lbs, especially you ladies. That weight takes a toll on the ol’ joints. Maybe a night or two you can get away with, which I’ve done in the past, but for a trip like this shave weight wherever you can. For us that meant reducing water and carrying refillable bottles, packing way less clothes, bringing mostly freeze fried food products, and making a plan to eat all heavier food items the first day. No packable chairs for us either, but I’m seriously reconsidering that one. I just put the Helinox Zero Chair on my REI wish list.
So once I accomplished all of that, my final weight was still about 25lbs. Don’t forget I’m packing food for 3 here plus all the first aid supplies, head lamps, fuel canister, water filtration devices, etc, although Soren did help by carrying all the packaged meals. I volunteered to lug all the heavy bars and gummies. Man I wish gummies weren’t so heavy.
Did we waste weight on trekking poles? I hate to admit it, but we did. Let me explain. For one, most people carry poles. I started to think, maybe I’m the one that’s mistaken on their usefulness. I’d hate to be out there 9 days and then wish we had brought something so simple as poles. Also, they could come in handy if someone twisted an ankle, so for that alone I deemed it wise. Did we end up liking the poles? Sorry to say, still not a fan. I like using my own muscles, thanks. (Ok, for water crossings it wasn’t bad….) Theron, however, grew to love them! By the end he was hiking with them all day. So there you go. It’s a personal choice.
Other specific items we lugged around the mountain?
I’d like to give a shout out to the Sea to Summit collapsible cook pot that fit nicely on my Jetboil stove. Very convenient when cooking for three. Also loved having our collapsible bucket that is a dream for washing dishes, collecting water, and even washing little boy undies. Gross, I know, but you do what you gotta do. Extra weight that could be shaved for sure, but for us it was worth it. We also had the Jetboil as previously mentioned, plus the stove attachment, and 2 fuel canisters. You can cache a fuel canister, but it just felt safer to have a spare on us. We never used said spare.
I’ve mentioned our tents in previous blogs. We currently are using the Wilderness Technology UL2. At 2lbs each, they were barely an inconvenience. I had one, Soren the other. Easy peasy. But after 9 days of set up and tear down, they are starting to see some wear. We will see how these hold up.
What about clothes?
Clothing wise, the interwebs told me not to worry about a change of clothes. Pack one set and stink away. I really wanted to be that person, but I couldn’t help but think a spare would be handy. What if your shirt ripped on a tree? What if you couldn’t stand the smell of your own self? Wouldn’t one extra shirt be nice? So yes, I packed that extra shirt, plus one pair of shorts, one pair of convertible pants, one long underwear set, 3 undies, one swim suit, one puffy jacket, one fleece jacket, a rain jacket, a long sleeve sun shirt, a ball cap, and 4 socks. That darn second shirt really wasn’t needed, the fleece jacket and rain jacket were rarely used, the gloves just sat in the bottom of my bag, and 4 socks was overkill, but the rest was useful. I give myself an B+ in the packing department. Packing for weather on a mountain is always unpredictable, so better to be safe than sorry.
Sleeping bags and pads
Sleeping bags are also a very personal choice. We use down bags which pack down really tight and are exceptionally warm. Some prefer synthetic, but they are large and lumpy. Cons of down, however, is that if you get that bag sopping wet, your trip is essentially done. There’s no drying that thing out. Apparently with synthetic there’s a chance. Just don’t let your bag get wet and you are fine. That’s why you always hike with rain gear, even if it’s 90 degrees out (rain coat, rain poncho, pack cover, tent rain fly).
For sleeping pads, we all have Therm-a-Rest pads. They seem fine. I won’t go into much detail here because I have zero experience with anything else, but they worked great. I like how easy they are to roll up in the morning, which was important because I was rolling up THREE of those suckers every morning. The boys just couldn’t get the hang of it.
Backpacks
I also want to give a quick shout out to my new pack, the Gregory Deva 60L. I purchased this bag literally the week before our hike, after trying what seemed to be just about every pack in Western Washington. Everything was too small here or too big there. Every REI salesperson that helped me commented that I would do best with a kids pack, but of course they didn’t have the right kid pack in stock. Ugh. Well, for a last ditch effort, I bought this pack online, in size XS, and on sale. It was a steal. Then I brought this bag to REI and had them fit it for me. Hallelujah, it felt great! I would never recommend marching out on trail with a brand new pack, but that’s just how it went. My old pack was just not going to work for this adventure. And now I’m in love with my backpack. Insert heart emoji.
Water
I would remiss if I didn’t quickly talk about filtering. Everyone has their own system, and when I first started learning about backpacking I found it so overwhelming. There’s everything from iodine pills to gravity systems, pumps, and even UV light contraptions. Believe it or not, my first trip out solo with the boys I just brought iodine pills. Oh what a newbie I was. That is a legit option, by the way, but it’s time consuming and makes your water taste funny. I always bring them as emergency back-up though.
Nowadays I’m a big fan of the Katadyn Be Free filters. They are so simple to use and easy to filter on the go. I also really like the Sawyer Squeeze. Those are what I am familiar with and those are what I brought. Yes, both, just in case of failure or losing a filter in a river crossing accident (I watched a Vlogger where that actually happened). Never touched the Squeeze the whole trip but glad we had it as back-up.
maps And Other Logistics
For help in deciding what kind of trip you wish to plan and to better understand what to expect, the book Hiking the Wonderland Trail by Tami Asars seems to be a staple for most. I managed to find one at the local used bookstore.
Another incredible resource is the Wonderland Trail Facebook group. I’ve been gleaning little tidbits from them all year. Only thing I found distasteful was when a few members jumped all up on this woman who was inquiring for advice on taking her two kiddos on the circuit. “Don’t backpack alone with kids,” they said. “Better have back up plans and a GPS panic button,” they said. ie, “You are a woman,” is what they were saying. Well those peeps can just shut up. They don’t know her kids. They don’t know my kids. So take all the information you can from the site, and just be careful what you post, if you do. There’s always some jerk wad that thinks they need to offer advice on things you obviously have never considered. Insert eye roll. Although to be fair, almost all of the people in that group are super encouraging and there to help, so do join.
So map. You also need map. While the trail itself is mostly straightforward, there are times, especially at water crossings, where you start to question if you are on the track. Also it’s nice to know approximately where your campsites are and what bodies of water might be nearby. For a hard copy map, I just had the good ol’ Green Trails map that you can get on Amazon or at REI. Bonus, it was fun to “read” the map at camp in the evening and have a heads up of where our next day would take us.
Additionally, a phone app can be a lifesaver. I don’t yet have or know how to use those expensive GPS thingies that everyone hangs on their backpack (but I hope to get one some day, they are just so expensive), so me and my iPhone are besties on trail. Two of the most popular map apps are Gaia and All Trails, both of which allow you to download your map offline so no wifi is required (subscription required however). I downloaded my All Trails map ahead of time and felt reassured that at any point I could at least see my location and if I was or was not on the trail. Also with kids, it’s very handy to see in real time how far you are into a hike and be able to answer the age-old question, “Are we almost there?”
A quick note about cell service. Don’t bet on any sort of cell service while out there, EXCEPT all around Summerland. I could not get any coverage even at Sunrise or White River…..nuthin.’ So unless you have one of those GPS thingies, don’t plan on sending any messages home until maybe you hit Summerland. I also sent messages home with a friend that met me on trail, so that’s another option.
Another ah-mazing resource? The Far Out app. I can’t say enough great things about this app. I think I heard about it on the FB group, but I was really on the fence at first. Did I really need another app in addition to All Trails? While the Far Out app itself is free, the trail downloads cost $$. Did I really need to spend the $20 for another map? I went back and forth thinking about this for weeks, then in a moment of panic purchased the app literally the day before our hike. Then I immediately regretted it!
BUT, then I didn’t. You know what this app does? It starts clocking your mileage once your feet hit the trail. If you click on your upcoming campsite, it not only tells how far away you are (so cool!), it also has user comments about the sites (which are best, for example), water sources at the site, and all sorts of fun info. Even better, the app maps out ALL the water sources and gives updates on how available they are (a trickle vs an ample supply). This was incredible, especially since we were filtering on the go. Oh man, the stress it saved me with kids. I’m taking Far Out with me, every time.
Summary
So I think that sums up how we did our planning. Obviously we took some trips ahead of time to test gear and get our legs in shape, but really it was months of reading, thinking, going to REI, reading some more, going to REI some more, and mentally planning before everything came together in late July.
Let me reiterate, I’m no pro here, but these are the steps we took to prepare and successfully complete the Wonderland circuit. Don’t wait until the last minute. Once you have a permit or walk-up dates in mind, start learning. Check all your gear and test it. If your gear fails on the trail, your trip may be over, so check and double check. Stockpile essential food items, especially when you see handy items on sale. If you are taking kids, start prepping them mentally and physically months in advance.
Then start getting excited. You are going to do the Wonderland Trail!
Read our next upcoming blog for tales from the Wonderland trail!
