Wonderland…a trail of pain

Sunrise at Sunrise

I’ve had the idea of running the Wonderland trail for a few years, long before I completed my first long distance run. I’ve been on a few sections of this famous trail, mainly back in the day when I was hiking and well before I started getting serious about trail running. Funny side story; my first attempted long, multi-day hike was the Northern loop of the Wonderland. I ended up getting lost or “off route” as I like to put it. Honestly if you’re lost you generally stay that way and although it was quite unpleasant, I did manage to find my way back to the trail after navigating by compass for the better part of a day!

Returning to this adventure…after a full summer of training, several long runs and completing my first almost 25.2 mile, almost marathon length trail run I decided to attempt the Wonderland. For those who aren’t familiar, the Wonderland trail is a loop trail that circumnavigates Mt. Rainier. The complete “official” trail length is 92.2 miles and the total elevation gain is 22,768’. Although I have seen varying estimates for both stats, mainly for the elevation gain. My own results from measuring the trail on a USGS topo map were 82 miles and 21,000’ of elevation gain. It really doesn’t matter though, it’s a long way to travel in one push as it’s a lot of up and down. The only saving grace is that terrain is generally foot friendly. The sections in the forested areas have some of the softest terrain I’ve ever been on, it’s like running on pillows!

Early Morning Light

My initial plan was to begin at Longmire and run the loop clockwise. I had last minute logistics concerns, unfortunately by last minute I mean the night before while trying to get a few hours of sleep. I needed to cache food at two locations; one at Mowich Lake which is approximately 30 miles from Longmire and the other at White River Campground, which nearly 55 miles from the start. White River is also a point at which I could easily exit if need be since it’s near the loop road. My last minute decision was to leave my car here and then try to get a ride to the start at Longmire. If I needed to exit at White River I could hitchhike down to my car at Longmire. My biggest oversight was the caches. It was very time consuming to place the first one and since I started later than planned getting a ride to the start was not realistic considering the time involved. On the drive over to Sunrise/White River I began preparing my alternate plan; I knew the loop was just not going to be an option. I told myself early on that everything needed to be nearly perfect for this attempt. A run of this magnitude has little margin for error, especially when travelling solo. I was disappointed; however I quickly devised an alternate plan since I was still ready and willing to go for a long run. This is after all the Wonderland, an amazing trail that surrounds a beautiful volcano and any adventure here is always a memorable one.

Mt Rainier - Winthrop Glacier and Willis Wall

I arrived at Sunrise at 6:20 and was on the trail at 6:30. My newly devised plan was to run to Mowich Lake and back and possible return via the Northern loop of the Wonderland trail. I estimated this to be 40-50 miles, still a very significant run. The weather was looking good, some low cloud cover which was typical for early mornings around the mountain. It was quite cold however and an upper level, low pressure system was due to arrive on Saturday night. It did appear to be stalling, but still it was a concern. Either way I am glad that I had cold weather gear. Weight is a very big issue on a trip like this and it was critical that I try to keep my pack at four pounds (minus water). This is not easy to achieve, considering the extra gear I needed for the chilly weather. In the end my total pack weight with water was around eight pounds.

I began my run on the “high trail” from Sunrise which has some really nice views. Mount Rainier was occasionally peaking through the clouds, still bathed in the warm colors of the rising sun. I snapped a few photos and began what I thought would be my longest and perhaps most difficult trail run to date. The beginning of the run was fairly uneventful. I’ve been on this stretch of the Wonderland before and run on nearby trails, still it was a beautiful morning. 

Willis Wall (left) and Liberty Ridge (center)

Houston we have a problem! Around five miles in I started to feel pain on the outside of my right knee. I knew instantaneously that it was my IT band (Iliotibial Band Syndrome) sounds scary, although on the list of things that could go wrong; this was not far from the top worst problems I could experience. IT band pain can vary from mildly annoying to extremely painful. My attempts to reduce the pain were mainly unsuccessful, although stretching did help prevent it from becoming more severe. I really didn’t want to stop running and the masochist in me told me to keep going, although I was sure that heading all the way to Mowich Lake would be a bad idea. I kept pushing on, playing the usual mind games that are involved with controlling pain. About ten miles in I knew that I would not make it much further than the Carbon Glacier, which was around 11-12 miles from where I began.

The trail home

I came really close to my new goal and I made it to a clearing that allowed me a view of the Carbon Glacier. Turning around is never easy for me, even when I am pain, still I began to think of the painful trip back and realized that it would be worse if I kept going. I wanted to keep a decent pace on the return trip, fortunately I had a lot of uphill travel on the return, this is actually better for my IT Band issue. It’s one of the rare times when I was happy to be going up instead of down! The return trip went as well as expected and I took several short breaks to rest and stretch to help alleviate the pain. It was very difficult to not be able to run on the back since there were so many nice stretches of trail. When I reached Frozen Lake, a mere 1.5 miles from my car I decided to tolerate the pain and run. It felt better than expected, however I was overjoyed when I finally saw the buildings at Sunrise. A few moments later my journey of pain ended.

On the drive home I was already planning my next big run, although it won’t be the full Wonderland loop this year. If I can commit the time to training I may attempt it again next year, although this time with better planning and hopefully no bodily malfunctions!

Quick stats for this route:

TIME: 8.7 hours
DISTANCE: 22 miles (map)
GAIN:  6970 (Suunto)
WEATHER: Mostly clear, cold with some wind.

Number of…

Mile in pain: 17

Spills: 0

Sprained ankles: 0 (another really close call)
Blisters: 0 (thanks again Injinji!)
Hikers carrying heavy packs:  12+

Calories consumed: 2360 (including pre-run food)
Liters of water: 4.5