4.7 miles, 1200' gain, 2100' descent

What a day this was. Up there with the very best days of my life.

I got up early and spent an hour watching dawn color the face of the mountain while three deer grazed in the meadow below me. Back to camp for breakfast, only for a fox to wander through while I was filtering water. Could it get any more magical?

Turns out yes, it could. This section of trail, up to Panhandle Gap, traversing across the high alpine, then a Big Down to Indian Bar, is the ultimate expression of the rock, ice, and strangeness of my favorite mountain. Cliffs and waterfalls abound, with big and constantly changing views in every direction, all overseen by a massive cloud halo that sat over the summit of Tahoma. I was moving slowly with not that much distance to cover, taking it all in, taking SO many photos, literally laughing out loud on multiple occasions, overcome by the sheer incredibleness of it all.

The final descent to Indian Bar is a knee-busting feat of trail engineering, with countless wooden steps to control erosion along this steep path. Eternal gratitude to the trail crews who make such things possible.

The group shelter at Indian Bar, like that at Summerland, is an old stone building. Fool me once... This time I set up my tent inside the shelter, and enjoyed a restful mouse-free sleep. I invited another group of hikers to share the site with me, as it was too special and had too much room to keep for myself.

Let's talk toilets for a moment. There is a great variety of them around the Wonderland, ranging from basic holes in the ground to fancy composting devices. Some are enclosed in wooden shacks while others sit proudly out in the open. The group site toilet at Indian Bar boasts the greatest view of any toilet I've shat on to date, and is also where I met someone with a truly unique job: hike into the wilderness, spend a few hours in a hazmat suit emptying sewage from a hole in the ground into plastic buckets, prepare those for later helicopter pickup, then hike back out. Respect!