Wonderland Day 7

July 29, 2019

Summerland to White River: 7 miles

I was so tired this morning, and had a hard time getting up even though I’d been awake. I barely got any sleep last night. I think I was stressing out about the possibility of Will’s car getting broken into and having my stuff stolen. I also had some songs stuck in my head and I could not get them out! I must have gotten some sleep though. We woke up at 5:30 this morning instead of 6 so we could watch the sunrise on Rainier. Such a good decision even though I was dead tired. The sun made the mountain glow pink and it was pretty incredible. Will pretty much packed most things up by the time I was done photographing the sunrise, so I just needed to get my stuff together and we were hiking by 6:30! 

We quickly lost sight of the mountain and walked downhill on a really nicely graded, decently wide footpath through the meadows and eventually woods. We were both ready to be done, and I only had 2 bars and a pack of fruit snacks left to eat. The miles seemed to both go by super fast and also drag on. Eventually I started seeing more day hikers so I knew we were getting close. Once the slight uphill began, I knew there was only a couple miles left until we were finished! I flew down the trail until I saw the river, and Will sitting nearby drying out the tent fly and footprint since there was lots of condensation last night. Once I got there, we packed everything up again, crossed over the half log bridge and ran up to the bathrooms and car. We were done! And the car was intact, and nothing was stolen! Wooo! We quickly went into clean-up mode: I grabbed “town clothes” and my last baby wipe and ran to the bathroom to wipe myself down, put deodorant on, and changed, and we re-organized our stuff. There was another group starting as we were cleaning up, they were essentially doing the same itinerary as us, but different campsites. We gave them some beta and told them to have fun! Then we were off. 

And starving. And I was feeling pretty car sick. We eventually got to Enumclaw and went to McDonalds... and loitered until the lunch menu started at 10:30 am. Once it started, we ordered and once we got our food, inhaled it incredibly fast! Like true thru-hikers. Soon enough, we were back in Seattle! 

Some iPhone pics: