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Overview Plan: Hike the Wonderland Trail When: August 11 - 20, 2004 Who: Ed Tucker, Carl Fisher, John Gundry, Mark Schedler The Wonderland Trail is one of America's most beautiful trails and is more than 90 miles long. It encircles Mount Rainier in Washington, which at 14,410 feet in height is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states. Early in January 2004 a group of forty-something (well Ed is actually a fifty-something) guys began planning to backpack the entire trail. Many decide to hike the trail in sections and some do it over several years. However, since we were flying in from Wisconsin, we wanted to do the whole thing in one trip. We settled on a 10 day, 93 mile trek. We used "Discovering the Wonders of the Wonderland Trail - encircling Mount Rainier" by Bette Filley to assist with planning. See this table for all of the numerical details. A bit of history: On May 8, 1792, Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy anchored his ship near today's Port Townsend, Washington, and gave the mountain the name we use today. He wrote in his log, "...the round snowy mountain...after my friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, I distinguished by the name of Mount Rainier...". In 1833, Dr. William Fraser Tolmie of the Hudson's Bay Company became the first European known to have traveled into what is now Mount Rainier National Park. Established as a National Park by Congress on March 2, 1899, Mt. Rainier became the fifth national park in the country.
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