Hiking the Wonderland Trail: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier's Premier Trail Author: Visit Amazon's Tami Asars Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1594856540 | Format: PDF
Hiking the Wonderland Trail: The Complete Guide to Mount Rainier's Premier Trail Description
About the Author
Author Tami Asars grew up in Western Washington playing in the foothills and mountains of the North Cascades. Since then she has hiked thousands of miles of trails in the state, including countless hours on Washington's thru-hike trails: the Pacific Crest Trail, the Boundary Trail, and the Wonderland Trail. For several years she has been leading professional classes on outdoor pursuits including Backpacking Basics, Lightweight Backpacking, and of course, The Wonderland Trail. Asars lives in the Cascade Foothills of Washington, with her husband and their German shepherd.
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Mountaineers Books (August 1, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1594856540
- ISBN-13: 978-1594856549
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Wonderland Trail is justly considered one of the world's best backpacking trips. It has views, challenge, more views, wildlife, flowers, berries, more challenge, and finally, some outstanding views (if it's not raining). While the on-trail challenge is mostly physical and mental, the pre-trip planning has its own challenges. The Wonderland Trail requires navigating a rather complicated system: it's not as simple as just showing up the trailhead and setting out. The permit system alone needs explanation, and the earlier you get your application in, the better your chances. However, where most permits simply require you to know your dates, the Wonderland requires you to request a specific camping area for every night you're on the trail. This means you need to know a) where the campsites are, b) which ones you actually want to stay at, and c) the distance and terrain between them. Since the Wonderland is a somewhat accessible loop, theoretically you can start anywhere - but where to start? And which direction should you travel - clockwise or counterclockwise? Then there's the food caching possibilities. If you don't want to carry all your food for the whole 93 miles in your pack, then you'll need to know the ins and outs of where the caches are, what you can store in them, how to store them, and when you can and can't access them. Oh, and what about the bears? How do you deal with them?
While it's a glorious trail once you're on it, tackling the Wonderland requires a LOT of advance preparation. Thankfully, Tami Asar's book answers all of the above issues, and more. One of the aspects that I found most helpful was the sample itineraries.
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