Northern Loop Trail Day 3, Berkeley Park Camp to Sunrise, September 2nd, 2002




Ah, another beautiful clear morning in the wilderness! It actually had not gotten any colder overnight, which was nice. Dad and aunt Birdie, in addition to myself, had all thought up the idea of them meeting me at Sunrise on day three of my hike. With the weather forecast being so uncertain, and leaning in the poor direction, this seemed like an even better plan. So, we had arranged to meet near Frozen Lake, or between Frozen Lake and Sunrise, on Sourdough Ridge, sometime on Monday morning. So, I tried to get out of camp at a reasonable time, yet ended up not leaving until about 9:25! Ah well, at least I did not have far to go, and only about half as much elevation gain as the day before, not to mention my pack was getting lighter as I ate up the food.



I thought for sure they would beat me to Frozen Lake, as I really took my time getting out of Berkeley Park, taking pictures and enjoying the sunshine. However, I still managed to get to the junction about 20 minutes ahead of Dad and uncle Bob! I chatted a bit with a group of hikers who were doing half the Wonderland Trail, and had just arrived ahead of me, from Mystic Lake. After another bit of a rest once Dad and Bob arrived, with some fresh cookies from Birdie, we walked the easy one and a half miles back to the Sunrise parking lot, where Gladys was waiting. Upon hearing the updated weather report, which called for rain, I decided to call of the remaining two and a half days of my hike for completion under better weather. We went into the cafeteria and had a sundae, then in to the ranger station to inform then that I would not be using my remaining two nights of camping at Sunrise and Mystic Lake. Dad drove us back down to my car at Ipsut Creek Camp, which was a LOT farther away via road than it was on the trail!

It was unfortunate that I had to cut my hike short, but I was thankful for the opportunity to be 'rescued' at that point. Physically I was feeling great, and would have had no trouble at all completing the hike five days in a row, but as we would see later in the week, it was quite evident that it indeed did rain there in the two following days, and hiking or camping in the rain is not much fun!