A first for me, and my biggest challenge yet

Tony Vogt
Oct 25, 2025
6 min read

8/6-9/2025 Wonderland Trail and Northern Loop

This is likely to be my longest post, but it is needed to tell the story of my first-ever backpacking trip all at once, even though each of the four days was a story unto itself.

Background

A coworker friend of mine invited me to join his family on a four-day backpacking trip at Mount Rainier, forming a group of six. They had previously backpacked all the way around Mount Rainier on the Wonderland Trail in two separate outings. This route left from Sunrise on the east side of the mountain, then took us along the Wonderland Trail for two days. The last two days were along the Mount Rainier Northern Loop, which rejoined the Wonderland at Sunrise.

Being the overthinker that I am, I had many worries about backpacking a challenging route with seasoned backpackers. Although I am an experienced hiker and my hiking fitness was good, I had never carried this much weight or roughed it like this, and I was concerned I would slow down the group. I was quite sure that I was making many mistakes in my preparation, but this was all part of the learning process.

Fortunately, I benefitted greatly from the group's experience. I borrowed from them key equipment, like a backpack, tent, bear canister and cooking stove. I asked many questions along the way and was given great advise regarding packing, gear, carrying a pack, and other facets of backpacking.

Day 1: Sunrise to Granite Creek Camp (5.1 miles, 900 feet up 1500 feet down)

The first day was rough, not because of the length and gain, but due to the weather. I strapped on the fully loaded backpack for the first time in the parking lot at the start of our journey, in the pouring rain. A quick comparison of the weights of my pack to others made it very clear that I was the "winner" for the heaviest pack. We saw a mamma bear and her cub not far from the trail. Fortunately, this first days was our easiest, giving me a chance to acclimate to the weight. However, the rain left us all soaked.

This wasn't much of a day for taking pictures, as we were focused on the rain and getting to our group campsite. We knew there were great views of Rainier off to our left, the clouds and fog kept visibility to a few hundred yards.

Once at camp, I was shivering and concerns about keeping warm through the night, knowing the temperatures would drop to about 40 degrees before dawn. Do I put on my only change of clothes to get dry, risking getting them wet over the course of the evening? Or do I keep on my wet clothes, expecting them to dry out from my body heat in the sleeping bag? I chose option one, and retired to my tent in dry clothes.

Day 2: Granite Creek to Carbon River Camp (9.2 miles, 1900 feet up and 4600 feet down)

After some rain during the night, we awoke to no rain and some hints of blue sky. After packing up our gear, and only minutes before we hit the trail did I put on my wet clothes from the day before.

Like each of our three campsites, this one was on a low point of the trail, as the adjacent creek provided the needed water source. The day began with a solid climb, enough to get the body warm and start to dry out the cold, wet clothes from the day before.

We stopped at Mystic Lake from our lunch break. It was still pretty cold, but the sun made an appearance and that helped lift our spirits and dry out the wet tents that some of us strapped on the outside of our packs.

Following some more climbing, where we saw a massive elk in the distance, we began the very long descent. The first glacier we "crossed" was the Winthrop Glacier, meaning we crossed at the bottom across the stream of melting glacier water. It was fascinating to see how massive these glaciers are, and how much they look like rocks and dirt more than they do ice.

The second glacier was Carbon Glacier. We travelled along the east side of the glacier a very long way while descending thousands of feet. By the end of the day, the toes were very unhappy with me.

One of my favorites parts of the hike was the suspension foot bridge across the Carbon River, which took us to our campsite. The bridge is 200 feet long and should be crossed one person at a time. The bridge swayed way too much for my comfort level, especially given the height. Supposedly, it is only 30 feet above the river, but it sure seemed a lot more to me.

Camp this second night was much more pleasant, now that I was getting the hang of things, and more importantly, it wasn't raining. We were awakened early into the night by a loud profanity-filled argument between the campers in the nearby site. We learned the next morning that the group separated, and there was a significant misunderstanding regarding how far it was to this camp.

Day 3: Carbon River to James Lake Camp (7.3 miles, 3400 feet up, 2100 feet down)

Now that we had the two easier days out of the way, it was time to get down to some serious climbing. Interestingly, the return trip across the foot bridge was far less harrowing for me the second time. The first half of the hike this day was a very steep climb. We passed the time by playing a word game associated with each switchback, which seemed to provide a good mental distraction.

Once we reached the Yellowstone Cliffs and then Windy Ridge, the views were breathtaking. We traversed through meadows and past lakes. We had some nice mountain views, but none of "The Mountain" (Rainier), as it was blocked by the peaks in between.

We took a nice long lunch break at a pristine lake, and it was hard to leave. We saw another bear a safe distance away.

The downhill stretch to our next camp was very scenic. However, we did have to cross several large blowdowns, making for some interesting climbing over the downed logs. Once at camp, we checked out James Lake, a short walk from camp. Unfortunately, the river bank was extremely muddy, making getting into the lake more effort than it was worth.

Day 4: James Lake to Sunrise (12.1 miles, 4300 feet up, 2300 feet down)

Knowing this was going to be our longest day, and being motivated to make it to the cafe at Sunrise before it closed, we got an early start. I made a couple key mistakes that haunted me earlier. First, I did not eat much of a breakfast. I could not finish my protein bar, feeling rushed but also just tired of them. Secondly, I overpacked on water, taking a full three liters (6.6 lbs.).

Long story short, I experienced the dreaded "bonk", where you hit a wall when your blood sugar crashes. Fortunately, my expert partners quickly shared with me their high energy gummies for some quick blood sugar relief. I learned a valuable lesson about how protein (which was main staple of my diet) takes longer to turn to energy. Sugars, which I shied away from thinking they were merely treats, serve a valuable purpose for quick energy and relief. It only took a few minutes for me to feel like myself again, and then I was good to go for the remainder of the long day.

The map showed a viewpoint near the midpoint of this section, be we had no idea how grand the views would be. This ledge provided massive views of Rainier and the the White River thousands of feet below. This is a mandatory photo op location on such a beautiful day.

More climbing took us past Grand Park and to our next planned stop, Berkeley Camp, which was our first chance to reload on water this day. Just after the camp was a picturesque meadow, full of colorful flowers fed my a gentle stream. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

At this point, we could start to make out the top of the trail, which would lead us back to Sunrise. Although there was still plenty of work to do, we were highly motived knowing that the end was close.

Feeling energized and excited to complete the journey, I pushed ahead of the others to make it to the finish, where one person from our group was waiting to document our final steps. I was feeling a bit emotional having completed this challenge most unscathed and having learned so much along the way.

I am grateful that my friend and his family included me into their group. This was a life-changing experience that could open me up to new experiences in the future.