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Date:  August 22, 2003

Location  West Eagle Loop Backpack - Day 3

Where:  Traverse Lake to Trail Creek

 

 It started raining during our night at Traverse Lake, particularly hard at 4:00 am, but by 6:30 am it had stopped and we got out of our tents to cook our breakfast of blueberry pancakes on a dry granite ledge. We hung out our tent rainflys to dry as best we could while we packed up our camp and headed out by 8:40 for Wonker Pass.

switchbacking to Wonker Pass

We enjoyed our climb to Wonker Pass, the trail switchbacked up steep granite slopes, and gave us good views of Traverse and Echo Lakes. It started to spit rain as we neared the summit and we covered our packs with rain covers, stopping briefly at this our highest point in the trip at 8,420 feet.

John & Jeanette at Wonker Pass

Jeanette in a meadow below Wonker Pass

It's a long descent from Wonker Pass to Trail Creek, and after eight miles of hiking we were ready for a campsite. John found a good one next to the creek and we setup camp and strung up a line to dry the tent flys. After enjoying a cup of coffee, we noticed the sky began to look threatening. We scurried around and put on the tent flys and pack-covers and got into the tents just as a good thunderstorm began. We enjoyed some time reading in the dry comfort of our tents. By four it stopped raining and we got out of the tents and fixed dinner. By six it started raining again and sent us to our tents for good.