Wonderland Trail : Sunrise to Mowich

For the yearly backpacking trip we had thought about for a few years trying to do part of the wonderland trail. This year after much debate we finally made it. We didn't have time to make advance reservations so we basically took the route the ranger gave us from availability.

A picture of a motley group meeting up at our garage at 530am on the day of the hike.



The scenery was fantastic right of the bat. My dad even decided to hike the first few miles with us.

The route was quite difficult with day 1 from Sunrise to Mystic Lake, being much longer than expected. We were pretty beat by the time we got to camp but still managed to get a quick swim and much needed wash in. Some of us literally fell into camp, and didn't come out until the next day.

Day 2 was a nice recovery day walking from Mystic Lake to Carbon River at only 4.9 miles. It was downhill so it beat up our legs a bit, but didn't take much time and allowed us to have a relaxing afternoon to play, wash, and enjoy the river.
This isn't carbon river, actually a bit smaller, but you get the idea of how raging they are. The louder sounds in the background our boulders rolling along the bottom of the river.

Here is one of the many waterfalls we saw, this one perfect for cooling off in, and next to it the picture of the carbon river bridge.



Day 3 was a bit more brutal from Mystic Lake to Mowich Lake via Spray Park. The ranger suggested it and said it was a bit more difficult but drastically underestimated the actual difficulty. The first climb in the morning was around 3100 vertical feet in just over 3.5 miles. Some of it was even over glacier



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It was beautiful and after the climb it was basically all downhill. A highlight being one of the waterfalls at the bottom


Mowich lake was beautiful


, but the campsites there were horrible. A big gravel parking lot with a few kitty litter boxes to put tents it might be the best description.
We choose a late night pick up getting home at 3am over a night camping there.

All in all a fantastic trip

Wonderland Trail : Sunrise to Mowich

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Alpine Death Ride

After seeing my bike my landlord decided we should go riding together culminating eventually in this "death ride", maybe it isn't quite as bad as the californian version, but more than tough enough for me.

So we caught the train from Zurich heading south at 630am to "beat the rush", and avoid cycling through the hottest hours of the day. Both of which didnt turn out to be necessary, but as the train ride was a good 2 hours, it gave us time to relax, digest, and mentally prepare for the inevitable.
Susten:
Susten was the first pass we climbed, it wasnt easy, but since our legs were fresh, and the sky was pretty clear, the climb flew by. At the top


Grimsel:
Grimsel was a long tough (15 miles, 6200 vertical feet) climb up from Innertkirchen. It was never really very steep, but it just kept on going, with 3 false summits. I had also eaten through my gummybears at that point so my energy was dipping


Eating lunch at Grimselhöhe was one of the most satisfying things I even done even though it was only simple pasta with tomato sauce


Furka:
In comparison to grimsel, furka wasnt so bad, but we were already wiped so it crawled by. The road was pretty constant except for one evily steep stretch in the middle, and the false summit. Coming down there was a perfectly swiss scene of cows crossing the mountain road and blocking traffic


Finally between Andermatt and Göschenen there was a memorial at Teufelsbrücke (Devil's Bridge) to the russian soldiers who died there coming up from the south to attack napoleans forces in northern switzerland.

Susten, Grimsel, and Furka Pass Ride

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