Wonderland Trail Cache : Mail vs. Drive&Drop

I'm trying to think through how I want to proceed with my food caches. I'm also going in for a walk up permit, end of August, mid week. Obviously Mailing them will be more expensive, and driving them around the mountain will be more time consuming. I will have a rental car, arriving in the park midday and hoping that I secure the permit and day one of hiking the very next morning. Are there any other lines of thought out there concerning mail vs. driving the caches?

Another question I have: Is there any advantage to which station to try to secure the permit from?

Oh man... problems here. Driving them around would be hundreds of miles if you go from the Paradise road to Mowich Lake to Sunrise, and use a huge amount of time Yet mailing has it's own problems: limited places to mail to and limited hours. I would encourage you to rejigger your food so that it's as light as possible, carry about half to 2/3, and have like one food cache, at maybe Longmire Lodge. How many days do you think you will need? People do this bit(h in like 8-9 days... sometimes less.

(FWIW I have another post where I ask about carrying 10 days worth of food on the PCT, longer and with more ascent than Wonderland, and yet it seems doable).

I'm a big proponent of the walk-in permit system. I've done it twice with no problem, at two different stations, and couldn't have been more pleased with either ranger. But I've never cached or mailed food and I agree that would add a logistical challenge. I came to the WT with lots of western long trail experience where 100 mile resupplies are the norm, so I didn't even consider the difficulties a food drop. If you need one, I don't think it would matter much where you do it or where you start from.

I always stop at the cache box at Mowich Lake to pick through the hiker box, that's for sure.

I did a walk up the year the reservation was down. I got my permit at White River for a start at Mowich Lake. It was easy to drop off caches at Sunrise and Longmire, then drive to Mowich. Since you don’t know your itinerary, I’d avoid mailing ahead. Have a great trip. Hint: Longmire had 500 calorie muffins for sale.

We are using the drop-method, not much extra driving at all, it's pretty simple what we're doing: drive food cache to white river, (<2 hours from SEATAC) drive to reflection lakes (38 miles, 1 hour), hike clockwise, resupply on 6th day at white river, finish hike, voila! 2.5 hour drive back to SEATAC from reflection lake, except we'll hang in Seattle for at least another day.

We realize white river is more than half way along the hike, but no sweat, starting with 5 days of food, resupply for last two-three days, easy-peasy. We start on August 19th.

If you use White river for walk-in permit attempt, certainly, assuming you can get a permit, you can do something similar.

This loop is short enough, no food drop is really needed, 7-8 days is reasonable to carry. Sure is nice though to try to do 5-3 or whatever. Or as said, lots of supplemental food at Paradise.

Good luck to you!

Thanks for all your thoughts. I’m still thinking through the details but this has helped. I’m looking at Longmire as my permit issue, with a mail drop at white river. If I need to start there, I’ll cash what I have at longmire.

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Originally Posted by colorado_rob

We are using the drop-method, not much extra driving at all, it's pretty simple what we're doing: drive food cache to white river, (<2 hours from SEATAC) drive to reflection lakes (38 miles, 1 hour), hike clockwise, resupply on 6th day at white river, finish hike, voila! 2.5 hour drive back to SEATAC from reflection lake, except we'll hang in Seattle for at least another day.

We realize white river is more than half way along the hike, but no sweat, starting with 5 days of food, resupply for last two-three days, easy-peasy. We start on August 19th.

If you use White river for walk-in permit attempt, certainly, assuming you can get a permit, you can do something similar.

This loop is short enough, no food drop is really needed, 7-8 days is reasonable to carry. Sure is nice though to try to do 5-3 or whatever. Or as said, lots of supplemental food at Paradise.

Good luck to you!

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Unless you are very fit and/or really like to push yourself, I would advise a 10 camp itinerary. Enjoy the scenery, relax in camp, maybe even take a zero day someplace extra special. Of course I am an old coot, and a bit lazy, but I have done the WT twice, plus a West Side hike. More time in the wilderness is better than less, no?

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Originally Posted by Feral Bill

Unless you are very fit and/or really like to push yourself, I would advise a 10 camp itinerary. Enjoy the scenery, relax in camp, maybe even take a zero day someplace extra special. Of course I am an old coot, and a bit lazy, but I have done the WT twice, plus a West Side hike. More time in the wilderness is better than less, no?

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To each his own... but 92 miles (or whatever it is, something like that) in 8 days is pretty modest IMHO, and I'm nearly as old as you....

Plus, our itinerary was defined by the rangers per available campsites, direct quote on our permit: "This is the only available itinerary with your given time frame."

And yes, more time in the wilderness is definitely better than less! that's why we are pretty much constantly in the wilderness somewhere, and just a few days after we return from the WT, we head east and will attempt to complete the NE AT for my wife's AT quest. One could also say: "Spending time in more and different wildernesses is better than spending that same time in one wilderness", could one not? We all have different Modus Operandi.

It's all good out there, enjoy! Nothing at all wrong with spending 10 days on the WT, we are content with 8. All of us have hiked and climbed in MRNP many times.

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Originally Posted by colorado_rob

To each his own... but 92 miles (or whatever it is, something like that) in 8 days is pretty modest IMHO, and I'm nearly as old as you....

Plus, our itinerary was defined by the rangers per available campsites, direct quote on our permit: "This is the only available itinerary with your given time frame."

And yes, more time in the wilderness is definitely better than less! that's why we are pretty much constantly in the wilderness somewhere, and just a few days after we return from the WT, we head east and will attempt to complete the NE AT for my wife's AT quest. One could also say: "Spending time in more and different wildernesses is better than spending that same time in one wilderness", could one not? We all have different Modus Operandi.

It's all good out there, enjoy! Nothing at all wrong with spending 10 days on the WT, we are content with 8. All of us have hiked and climbed in MRNP many times.

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Nearly as old, but I've got you beat for lazy:).

Thanks for all the input. I am thinking of not doing a mail drop for a seven day loop and knocking a day of food off by starting after lunch on day 1 and just having breakfast on day 7.

Also appreciate the different opinions on length of time. I like the idea of getting fit beforehand, hiking longer days and having an extra day or two to drive to explore somewhere else.

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Originally Posted by evyck da fleet

Thanks for all the input. I am thinking of not doing a mail drop for a seven day loop and knocking a day of food off by starting after lunch on day 1 and just having breakfast on day 7.
Also appreciate the different opinions on length of time. I like the idea of getting fit beforehand, hiking longer days and having an extra day or two to drive to explore somewhere else.

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I agree with that approach. I stopped for stroll on the WT after hiking the nascent Pacific Northwest Trail. On the PNT, 30 mile days with 7,000' of climbing and bushwhacking were the norm, and I'd just had a near-200-mile food carry through the Pasayten (took a week). The fun little 90+ mile loop took four easy days, with lots of time to contemplate my navel and enjoy such excellent tread. It was even fun to have company. I'm not in that kind of prime hiking shape right now, so I wouldn't enjoy it as much if I could even accomplish it. (If you want to talk about cycling, that's a different story--focus has shifted a bit.)

Mowich Lake is a long drive... lots of iffy gravel road where you’ll wish you were driving a big truck


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Originally Posted by Feral Bill

Nearly as old, but I've got you beat for lazy:).

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Nope. Ya don't.... Look how long I too to respond to your claim of being lazier..... Maybe that's one reason we all like this long distance hiking thing. Perfect for lazy people. All ya gotta do is eat, sleep, hike, poop, repeat. Nuthin' else. Nirvana. I am serious.

Megapixel:
I haven’t looked at the NPS rules for food caches in awhile. So check the current rules.
If you drop off food in person, I saw no mention of what type of container you planned to use.
You may need to use the same type of plastic paint bucket required for mailing.
Check the current requirements before you leave.
Cheers!
Wayne

We were told to bring our cache in a 5-gallon bucket.

That’s what I thought. Although Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc. sell 3 gallon paint cans and lids that should suffice for 4-5 days of food.
A BV500 is 3 gallons.
Wayne