Day 4 Information
Sunrise Camp to Summerland - 10.5 Miles
Sunday, September 8th 2002

It is 11 a.m. on Sunday morning. I’m just leaving now from Sunrise Camp. I took some pictures of the lake before I left. It should be a pretty cool panorama.


A Panorama of Shadow Lake

There was a cool reflection on the lake with Mt. Tahoma. Unfortunately Mt. Rainier is still covered in clouds, although not covered as much as it was yesterday. The skies are actually blue except for around Rainier. Yesterday from the snow fall, Rainier got a nice blanket of snow, making Rainier look much cleaner and very beautiful. Last night I got a good nights sleep, although I was fairly cold. I think my sleeping bag sucks. I should’ve gotten the other one, even though it was a pound heavier, I think I would’ve liked it more. My tent poles are bending, they are supposed to FLEX not bend. From the snow and condensation last night, my tent was a little wet this morning. There is still slush from the side of my tent that hasn’t melted away yet. We had a deer in our camp yesterday. It came about 15 feet from my tent. I grabbed my camera but it was in my bag and by the time I got the camera out, the deer had walked away. I took a few pictures of foot prints down by the lake of some animals. I’m pretty sure it was from the deer and I think the other was from a wolf or something. It could’ve been a dog because I know they are not allowed into the wilderness, so I don’t think it could’ve been a dog. The trek is going to be several miles downhill so it should be pretty easy. My shins still hurt from the first day of downhill, along with my shoulders. My pack is also much heavier since I’ve added quite a bit of food. Oh, I see two deer in the meadow. They are about 300 feet from me. I think I will take a few pictures.


Two Deers eating in a medow near Sunrise Campground

Well, I suppose one of those two deer was the one that came through camp last night. I took a few pictures, but nothing great. They were far away, and standing in the shade, so the lighting wasn’t that great. The temperature is now about 65 degrees. Altitude is about 6300 feet or so. It might be colder than 65 degree’s. My watch claims it is 45 degrees, but my watch is calibrated for being on my wrist. Usually it is supposed to be off your wrist to measure the temperature. I don’t think it calibrated it correctly. The barometer reading is at 30.35. A little bit higher than yesterday but not by much. Yesterday I collaborated the barometer on my watch and the temperature to the reading at the Sunrise Visitors Center. Today for breakfast I had pop tarts, some apple sauce, some granola and I mixed up some tang for later today. I’m looking back at the mountain; it does look very nice with that fresh coat of snow. It makes me want to come back at all different times of the year. It’s so cool to see different phases, with snow, without snow. I want to come back in October and do a little hike when the leaves start to change color and such.

It is 1:15 p.m. I’m at about 4200 feet. I just left White River. I stopped there for about a half hour for lunch. I had drink mix and Pringles so I could throw away the bottle. I also had some granola, some sugar wafers and some beef jerky. The trail crosses over the road a few times through the campgrounds. It’s not too hard to find the trail but I could understand if someone did get lost in the little campground, if they weren’t paying attention. There was a small patrol cabin that I stopped and looked at for a few minutes.


White River Patrol Cabin

It had some interesting pictures with facts about the cabin and the Wonderland Trail. It was worth taking the two or three minutes to look at. They used the cabins mostly for firefighting and poacher patrol. The cabins along with the fire lookouts are for the most part abandoned; they only use them for “display purposes”. The next little bit is supposed to be fairly flat then it is supposed to gain 1500 feet over 5 miles up to Summerland. It’s all through the woods and I’m now entering into them again so it’s a little cool. The barometer reading now is 30. It was 32.20 but I’m sure it will change in a few minutes. The skies are cloudy again. The mountain is covered, can’t see much of it. My watch claims to be about 45 degrees which is about right. I took off my pants and my “not just johns” upper thermal underwear and long underwear, put my beanie away, now I have some nappy hair for everybody to see.


Derek Rowley - Yup, that's Me.

My shins still hurt. They don’t feel so good. My shoulders and hips feel alright but I’m sure they will be sore by the end of the day. I saw a large frog or toad on the trail down from Sunrise down to White River. I took a few pictures of the toad. If the picture looks as good on the computer I might consider sending it into StevesDigcams.com for the POTD contest. I used the super macro setting.


A large toad along the trail

I also took a few pictures of a slug using the super macro settings the first day. The slug had some pretty cool long censoring tentacles that were sticking out of its head. The Horry Marmot picture I took looked pretty cool also; I will consider sending that one in too.

It is about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday and I am at Summerland. The elevation here, according to my watch, is somewhere around 5900 feet The hike up here from White River, well, the first 3 1/2 miles, it was all flat with some downhill, but not much. The last 4.1 miles was pretty much all up hill. It was a pretty strenuous hike. I left White River campground at 1:15 p.m. or so. While I was there I finished off my Pringles and stuff. I got up here to Summerland at 3:50, which was about 2 hours and 50 minutes of hiking from White River Campground. I was hiking fairly fast. I passed about 5 others that were coming up here to Summerland. When I got here, there were 2 sites open, site 1 and site 3, so I put my stuff in site 3 because it was the better site. I went and got water, about 3 liters, and then came back, and on the way back from getting water, I saw several guys leaving. I asked them if they were the guys’ in camp 5, and they said yes. And I guess they were just leaving late. Who knows where they were headed. I got my backpack and stuff and dumped it off in campsite number 5. I went back to grab my tent, but when I was grabbing my tent, the people I passed about 4 miles before Summerland were just getting there. I had gotten to Summerland at 3:15, and they were coming in about 5:20 p.m. They were looking for a campsite, and I told them they could have this campsite because I was moving out. I told them I was just taking my stuff and moving on to campsite 5. So I grabbed my tent, and I moved over to campsite 5. I set up my stuff and I had dinner, which consisted of pasta, again, for the 5th night in a row, along with some potatoes, about half of a package, which was more than enough. And I again, had too much pasta. I dumped about 1/2 of it, I couldn’t eat it. I put it down a dirt squirrel hole. I also had pudding that someone had left behind, that I had picked up at the Sunrise Ranger Station. So that was alright, it was a little clumpy. I think I should have slowly mixed it instead of dumping it all in at one time. I probably should have used some colder water also. There was also a drink that someone had left behind. And then after I was done with that, I went and cleaned out my dishes and came back, brushed my teeth and I went and read the Book of Mormon for a while, that is what I have been doing for the past 45 minutes or so. Then I came back here and I had a little bit of granola before bed, with some water and some tang, and that is all. It is cold again, and I will probably be freezing tonight. Although, tonight I will sleep wearing most of my clothes. Of course, my socks, my beanie (that I got at Sunrise), my “Not just John’s”, long underwear, shorts, and my thin pants, which don’t help much but will a little. Also I have my bankslake.com shirt on, and a jacket. I think that will help the most. I don’t know why my sleeping bag sucks. It is cold especially near my legs. Actually it could be my tent. If my tent was one of those that had the rain flap that went all the way to the bottom on all 4 sides, it would probably be a lot better because it would keep a lot more heat in. But it causes a lot more condensation, as it did yesterday morning I believe. Tomorrow I am headed towards Indian Bar. The hike should be about 3 miles up. And then I’ll be at Panhandle Gap, which should be a good place to take pictures. Then it will be about 3 or 4 miles downhill to Indian Bar, which is supposed to have a great view of Mt. Rainier. As long as there aren’t any clouds. So, hopefully there won’t be any clouds tomorrow because there has been this entire hike. Hopefully we will see more sun, some warmer weather. If I were to do this trip again I would probably do it earlier in the summer, and plan for better weather. This is just a little bit too cold for me, especially in the mornings.


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