Started at Mowich Lake around 9 am on Saturday. We got the last spot in the parking lot - cars after us were starting to park on the shoulder of the road in. We had left Seattle shortly after 6 am to drive down, the drive included a short detour to the Carbon River ranger station to pick up our permits.

1st day: Hiked the Spray Park trail up through Spray Park, Seattle Park, and down to Cataract Valley where we camped. We did take the short detour to Spray Falls - we were slowed down by several large families navigating the narrow trail, but the side trip was worth it. Spray Park was beautiful, but the bugs kept us from lingering too long. My 18% DEET bug spray was no match for them. Cataract Valley was a nice camp - very quiet, no long distance views but beautiful forest. Not as many bugs there as up in the park.

2nd day: Hiked down to the Carbon River, to meet up with the Wonderland Trail, took a short detour to the Carbon Glacier overlook, then followed the Wonderland Trail to Ipsut Creek campground where we spent the night. There were not nearly as many bugs at the lower elevations. Note that the Wonderland Trail now goes only on the east side of the river, so we got to cross the river twice - I think these crossings (first on a suspension bridge, and second on several log bridges with views of Rainier) were the highlights of our trip. Ipsut Creek campground felt eerie since there were many remnants of the old road and the old life as a car camp. The spots along the river were the nicest, and we enjoyed the time here.

3rd day: Woke early to cook breakfast and pack up, hiked out to rejoin the Wonderland Trail heading up to Ipsut Pass and back to Mowich Lake. The initial climb up to the pass was through forest with many waterfalls and cascades. Upon leaving the forest, however, the bugs descended on us and the trail turned very steep. The good part was that the bugs kept us moving quickly up the steep and difficult terrain all the way to the pass. I have heard people recommend hiking this loop in the opposite direction due to this steep section, but I'm not sure that it would have been that much better going down. We were happy to get to the pass, and the last section of the trail (relatively flat, mostly along the lake) was heaven.

All in all, a great trip - less crowded than other parts of the park (except for the parts closest to Mowich Lake) and highly recommended.

I could have been at work. I thought about going to work. But, the weather forecast said it'd be nice for the next two days, so I made the right choice and took too days of vacation to go backpacking. A couple of destinations presented themselves as options, each, coincidentally next to a volcano. In the end, my volcano of choice was the big one, Rainier.

Though my choice of destination was made the day-of, the genesis of my Tahomian expendition came a couple of weeks earlier. After seeing several trip reports lauding the virtues of Spray Park, I decided to head up there one weekend. Unfortunately, by the big day, Spray Park was listed as WTA's Hike of the Week. It also turned out to be a free-entrance weekend. The net effect of all this was that by the time I made it to the trailhead, there were cars lined up for at least a mile down the road. "Forget it," said I, "I shall go elsewhere." So, elsewhere (Paul Peak to Mowich River) I went. That's not really the point. The point is that in surveying other destinations, I took note of the fact that a neat little loop could be made by hiking from Mowich Lake to the Carbon River and them back up through Seattle and Spray Parks. A hiking trip is born.

Enough history, back to the story. I left home at about 9:00 and, mistakenly thinking that I could get an overnight permit at the Paul Peak pay area, made it to Paul Peak by 11:15. No permits there...go to the Carbon River Ranger Station, said the sign. So, there I went. My plan was to camp at Cataract Camp, about 1.5 miles and 1400' up from the Carbon River. But, to my chagrin, Cataract was already full up for the night, as was the lower Carbon River Camp, my 2nd choice. Dick Creek, a mile out of my way up the Carbon Glacier trail was open when I walked into the Ranger Station, but the lady in front of me in the Ranger Station queue snapped up the last spot there. Fortunately, however, she was a very nice gal and allowed me to join her "party" that night. Whew...I had a place to pitch my tent! My new campmate was doing a big loop up through Sunrise and other places. She was going to head through Spray Park first, and I was planning to head out via Ipsut Pass/Carbon River, so we exchanged see-ya-at-camp's and parted ways.

I returned to the Mowich Lake trailhead, parked, hoisted my pack, and, determined to save dessert for last, set off towards Ipsut Pass and the Carbon River at about 2:30. Ipsut Pass (5100') is a pretty interesting place. You climb very gently on the approach, but right at the passm the trail drops away quickly as you switchback down a very steep meadowy slope wedged between dramatic cliffs. It leaves and impression. There were a good number of wild flowers in the meadow, though it was pretty overgrown and very buggy. Down, down, down the trail went, eventually plunging into forest, and in a few miles out onto the Carbon River trail (2600').

From there it was a gentle climb up the Carbon River. Due to a washout, the river must be crossed about 1.5 miles up. There are footlogs in place, and it is actually a pretty neat crossing. Gentle climbing continued up to the famed Carbon River suspension bridge (3200'). According to my original plan, I was going to cross the bridge and head up to Cataract Camp, but since Dick Creek was now my destination, I stayed on the east side of the river and started up to Dick Creek. The camp is only a mile from the suspension bridge, but, oh yeah, also 1200' up. Fortunately views of the snout of the Carbon Glacier and Mount Rainier above open up and motivate weary legs up what would otherwise be a slog-and-a-half. I made it to camp by about 7:00, got set up and had dinner. There were some bugs, but not bad at all. Dick Creek Camp doesn't have any views of the mountains, but there's a great panoramic view about 0.1 miles down from camp, so after dinner, I hoofed it down there (encoutering my inward-bound campmate) and watched the alpineglow on the mountain. I returned to camp, chatted with my next door neighbor, and went to sleep. I was going to go check out Rainier under the moonlight, but I fell fast asleep and didn't wake up until 7:00 the next morning.

The mountain troika (morning, oatmeal, and hot chocolate) came, and soon camp was broken and I was headed back down to the suspension bridge. I made my best impression of Indiana Jones crossing the bridge, and then it was time to start climbing. I realized the night before that, thanks to my forced detour to Dick Creek that instead of only having about 1800' of elevation gain on Day 2, I would instead be faced with 3200' of gain. To keep my sanity, I mentally divided the climb into Carbon River to Cataract and Cataract to the divide between Seattle and Spray Parks. This worked well.

The climb up to Cataract was overgrown in spots and the area around Cataract camp was seriously buggy. Cataract camp is also in the woods, so no views. Between the bugs at the lack of views, the detour to Dick Creek seemed worth it. The climb continued. There were a few patches of huckleberry, some of which were ripe enough to eat (tart, but tasty). After about 3.2 miles of climbing, I broke out into Seattle Park. Seattle Park is a neat place. It lacks expansive views of The Mountain (particulary in the lower parts of the park), but it has a beautiful combination of streams cascading through lush alpine meadows, eventually giving way to higher, rockier terrian, all with great views of staggering peaks. Whilst climbung through the meadows, I saw a big ol' brown bear a ways elow. Half a mile later, I spotted a cousin of his grazing right next to the trail in front of me. I backed off and spent quite a bit of time talking to him (ok, talking AT him...he wasn't much of a conversationalist), while I waited for him to amble away. With Fozzie out of the way, I continued onward and upward. The meadows faded, the terrian became rockier, and views of Rainier (actually views in all directions) opened up the higher I went. There were a couple of short patches of icy snow toward the top, none more than 60' and all heavily cairned. Finally, I found myself at the divide (6400'). A quick sprint up the knoll and the climbing for the day was down. And the 360 degree views were tremendous. Here I ate lunch. It was 2:00 and I had been staving off hunger with some snacks, but it was worth it, because this was a great spot for drooping the pack, kicking back, and relaxing.

The descent through Spray Park was everything it was cracked up to be. The flowers are now just a smidge past their peak, but still glorious. The meadows, the flowers, the big, big views of the mountains...it would be impossible to make good time through here, you have to stop every three steps to be able to even start to take it all in. There were some bugs, but that was irrelevant. All I could think was, "what a great day to be alive!"

It is impossible to say how much time elapsed while I made my way through Spray Park. All I know is that eventually the trail dropped into forest and the dream ended. I stopped at Spray Falls and Eagle Cliffs on the way out, both were gorgeous, though they felt more grounded in reality than the dreamland above. There were plenty of bugs through here, but soon enough, I was back to Mowich Lake and the end of the journey.

That sure beat a Tuesday and Wednesday in the office...

 P.S. Spray Park is beautiful. Judging from the other trip reports out there, I didn't take any pictures that someone else hasn't already taken. Resixing photos is still a bit of a pain, so go look check out other folks' reports.

5 days and 4 nights incorporating sections of the Wonderland Trail, Spray Park Trail, and daytripping to Skyscraper Pass. Joined by Mom and Dad (average age: 71) and Debbie and John. Fantastic trip!

Day 1: Mowich Lake to Eunice Lake to Ipsut Pass to Carbon River camp - started in mist, stayed in mist all day. A few bugs at Eunice lake. Steep, moist, and brushy avalanche chute from Ipsut Pass down to the Carbon River rainforest, then better tread to Ipsut Camp. From there easy uphill walking to Carbon River Camp. That trail is in good condition. Carbon River camp is very strange. The designers get points for ingenuity if not aesthetics. It's dank and moist.

Day 2: Carbon River camp to Mystic. Another day of misty weather obscured most views of the mountain, but we did catch a couple of shots of Carbon glacier with the mountain in the background. There's a big slide in the first mile to Dick's Creek, with NPS workers doing some intermittent blasting to clear the last of the boulders. Rubbly and steep in this area. Steep all the way to Moraine Park. Quite buggy in the park, and worse up to the little saddle. Great flower show in the park right now - mostly lupine but many others as well. Down good trail to Mystic lake, then down further to the camp. Some bugs at Mystic camp.

Day 3: Daytrip from Mystic to Skyscraper Pass. Another misty and eventually rainy day obscured any big views, but the pass is beautiful nonetheless. The Wonderland trail from Mystic to the Pass is in terrific condition, well-graded and snow-free the whole way. Very few bugs on this section of the trail.

Day 4: Mystic back to Cataract Valley Camp. Our first clear and warm day. We got an early start - a good thing, as the descent from Moraine Park and especially from Dick's Creek Camp is very exposed and hot. The climb from Carbon River camp up to Cataract Valley Camp is humid, buggy, and a bit overgrown, not to mention steep - best not to do this late on a hot day. Cataract Camp was by far the prettiest camp we stayed at - and we had it all to ourselves, sort of odd for a beautiful August day. Just a few bugs here.

Day 5: Cataract Valley through Seattle Park to Spray Park, down to Mowich Lake. A warm day, very buggy especially in the flower gardens; and lots of flies on the descent. Cross some long snowfields just near the 6400 foot saddle, but these are very safe/passable. The flowers on either side here are very spectacular, just tons of lupine and paintbrush, a few avalanche lilies leftover, many more coming on. Lots of photographers out and about. The mountain was big and brilliant in the east. The trail down from the park to the turnoff to Spray Falls is quite rutted and very steep with rivers of water on the trail in spots. From Spray Falls to Mowich Lake the trail is in much better condition.

All in all a beautiful classic backpack, not too hard, a great day trip to Skyscraper Pass. Bugs not at all bad considering the late meltout and all the reports from last week. If I did this again I'd stay at Ipsut or Dick's Creek the first night; Carbon River camp is not for me. Granite Creek camp looked pretty. Cataract Valley is a very nice spot and since it's not on the Wonderland trail, you may have it all to yourself.

There were some scattered thimbleberries and wild raspberries on the trail, but most of them are not ripe and of course the huckleberries are still green.

In all honesty, this is usually a multi night hike for the average joe. I did it in one day, my new record for longest single day hike at 31 miles.
In any case, I started at the carbon river entrance and went up the road to ipsut camp. The trees are massive along this stretch. A few wash outs have a nice trail working around them. 5 miles of flat easy hiking goes by quickly.
I continued up the carbon river, crossing at two miles to the east side of it, as the last mile before the suspension bridge is washed out on the west side of the river. Found a few huckleberry bushes with ripe berries that I filled up on at this stretch.
After crossing the suspension bridge, i was soon working my way up the cataract valley. In about a mile and a half, I reached cataract valley camp, which is in good shape. There were several campers there I chatted with while refilling my water. In 10 minutes, I was already on my way up into seattle park. The flowers were beginning to bloom in large quantities there and was blown away by the beauty of this park. Eventually, after a couple snow patches and one sizeable snow field (no route finding issues) I made to the gap between seattle and spray parks.
This is where I finally began seeing people hiking. Working my way down into the park (which is beyond awesome right now with the flowers) I passed many people, enjoying the day. It was about as busy as Mt. Si, so get there early!
A short but steep series of switchbacks (from spray park) brings you down to the junction for spray falls. Please do make sure to take this short (.2 miles roundtrip) to the falls as you will be missing out severely on one amazing falls!
From spray falls to mowich lake, the trail is easy, going up and down back and forth gradually. Do make sure to check out eagles roost view point for an outstanding view of mt. Rainier. Eventually, you arrive back at the lake, where I again refilled my water while enjoying the majesty of this lake.
Soon, I was back on the trail on my way up to ipsut pass. The trail isn't too steep and I made great time to the pass. The view from the pass is remarkable! You can see all the way down the valley and from side to side with towering cliffs. Don't forget to look down too. Why you ask? Well, if you're not going any further, you can be thankful. If you are continuing, prepare your knees for a beating! The trail is very steep, rocky and over grown in places. Add to that the cliffs directly above you to the left that loom menacingly overhead and it is a challenging trail, if not physically, then mentally. Working your way down, the trail shallows out a bit, and you're back in the cool forest. I did encounter a couple of logs down on thr trail, but I reported them, so hopefully they'll be taken care of.
Back at ipsut camp, I was making great time back to the entrance so I decided to go the 4 miles round trip to green lake. Too bad you can't camp there. Its a nice lake. The trail to green lake is beautiful too, with a few very old and large trees that fell above the trail with plants growing on them that you walk under neath. Pretty cool.
Anyways, finished the 31 miles in just 12 hours 30 minutes with a 27 pound pack on. I think I'm ready for the wonderland trail in a couple of weeks!