{NOTE: For those readers who don’t know our family, we’re the Connells. Doug’s my husband and I’m Jess. At the time of this trip, we had 7 kids (Ethan-14, Baxter-12, MeiMei-10, Silas-8, Moses-6, Theo-3.5, Luke-18 months), and I was 6 months pregnant with our 8th child. I’m publishing journal entries, pictures, & memories from our 12-day family adventure on the Wonderland Trail, one day at a time: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, and now… Day 6.}

Ethan, carrying Theo– such a hero when it came to crossings where bigger steps were required!

Wonderland Trail, Mt. Rainier
 Friday, 8/19/2016: Summerland to Nickel Creek (11.3 miles)
Elevation changes: +600, -100, +100, -1500, +500, -50, +150, -800, +150, -2000

JOURNAL ENTRY:

“Michael L. showed up late Thursday night– (8:45 pm?) — literally just after Doug had zipped up the tent & we’d kissed for the first time– haha! 🙂 We got him settled in, had a crazy long night of sleep… full moon… icy cold winds… kids out in that shelter… our tent rainfly flapping around– but WOW what a place! The views were phenomenal!

Woke up at 5:30, packed up quick.

Friday, we trekked up to Panhandle Gap, did not see elk.

Ethan & I got in a huge yelling fight (ugh!) — {unnecessary details omitted}  🙁 So much for not yelling. 🙁

Michael L. was SUCH a blessing to us all… he first hiked w/ Doug & Moses & others… and Doug said Mosey has never hiked so fast! 🙂

Then pretty soon, Michael became Theo’s favorite hiking buddy– carrying him across streams, leading him across snowfields, & even giving him a piggyback the last 1/2-mile to Indian Bar (where we had a snack).

The descent from Indian Bar to Nickel Creek was long. But we arrived @ 8:15 pm– after sunset, but before dark. Hooray! Total success for our hardest day. 11.4 miles.”

Up and up and up some more, on our way to Panhandle Gap Theo hated snowfields, but LOVED going up them with our friend Michael 🙂 Garbage bag sleds! Our first peek over Panhandle Gap, looking south toward Mt. Adams. (Panhandle Gap is the highest elevation on the Wonderland Trail) Bluebonnets are Texas’ state flower, and dear to our hearts (since Doug & I are both born-and-raised-Texans), so it felt especially thrilling to find huge swaths of them growing on the hillsides of Mt. Rainier. MeiMei (8) & Theo (3.5) with Mt. Adams behind them

Two hard-working brothers– Ethan (14) & Baxter (12) Silas (8) and Moses (6) making the trek uphill from Indian Bar. Tough… sunny… and beautiful.

MEMORIES:

  1. Some sketchy places in the trail on this day. A bouldered hill, with holes beneath… several, lengthy snowfields… paid lots of careful attention to getting Theo through these parts. We were all very thankful Michael was with us.
  2. Ethan and I fought hard… and worked through our fight. It’s a difficult memory, but difficult memories are part of real life. I don’t want to hold up the good of our trip without also reckoning with the hard things.
  3. Stopped for our first snack next to a small, snowy hill. The kids had fun sliding on their garbage bags (we’d brought garbage bags for each backpack as rain protection… but it never rained).
  4. As we went up our longest and steepest snow field, Moses (6) slipped/fell down a long way. And was fine. We all laughed hysterically when it was clear he was safe. Neither Doug or I was sure if he did it on purpose or not. 🙂 It caused the rest of us, who hadn’t already gone before him, to make our way back down, and go up the snow/ice-covered hill a different, less-risky way.
  5. The views along the Cowlitz divide are breathtaking. The whole walk is along the top of that ridge, with other ridges/ranges echoing out as far as we could see. Mount Adams directly in front of us was a completely different shape from the way it appears in the area of our home, in SW Washington.
  6. It was special to see our kids serving each other. Getting each other’s water bottles filled up, carrying Theo on their backs, offering to run back from camp to carry Moses’ pack for him, etc.

Random thought: it was really nice of God to arrange for our hardest day on the itinerary to be day 6– once we’d built up stamina, strength, and skill in doing campsite-things like tearing down/setting up the tent, etc.  AND when our friend would be with us to help motivate (all) the kids to move FAST.

Even though it took us 15 hours to go 11.4 miles (long by some hikers’ standards), we got through that day way faster than we would have if it would have come in the first few days. 

WE MADE IT!!!!

KEEP READING:

Wonderland Trail, Day 7: Should We Quit Early?

WANT TO SEE THE PACKING LIST?

How Our Family Geared Up for the Wonderland Trail