Week 30 Mar. 27 - Lower Lena Lake and the Valley of Silent Men

Total Distance: Approximately 8.0 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2000 ft. 
Time: 10:30 am - 2:30 pm 
Weather: Overcast. Rainy at low elevation, wet slushy snow at higher elevations.

It took me a long time to decide what hike I wanted to do this weekend.  I usually have an idea mid-week, but this week had a variety of challenges.  Not to go into too much detail, but in addition to the week before Spring Break at school and house-sitting/dog-sitting for friends, a good friend of mine spent two nights in the hospital.  He is actually the good hiking buddy from work who goes on most of these hikes with me.  The good news, my friend is back to normal and he is out of the hospital, but the bad news, he will not be hiking with me for a few weeks.  While visiting him Thursday night, a friend of his that was there was telling me about good hikes in the lower part of the Olympic National Forest.  She mentioned the Lena Lakes, and a quick look in my snowshoeing book had a good little hike description for the lower lake and the valley above to the north.

I got up early enough, got some food, filled the tank up, and was on the road by 8:40 am.  I made it to the trailhead by 10:20 am.  I got out and was doing all the little things I do when I get to a trailhead now. I took off my house shoes and put on my rain pants, boots, and gaiters.  There were 3 people hanging around their car with big packs, and being the chatty person that I am, I began talking with them.  They were waiting on the other 6 hikers that were in their party that camped out the night before.  I was asking some questions like, "will I need my snowshoes," or, "how long does it take to get to Lower Lena Lake?"  Got my answers (yes and about 1 and half or 2 hours), then gathered my pack and hit the trail.  

I guess it was about 15 minutes into the hike, I realized I forgot my camera.  Luckily, I had my phone recording the gps track, so I could use my phone for a few pictures.  Bummer though, because my camera takes much better pictures, and I usually take more with my camera.  The hike was good, a lot of switchbacks and uphill walking.  I enjoy hiking by myself more than I ever thought I would before I began this commitment.  I did pass a few people coming down, but I have started to notice that when I am walking in the woods my mind will actually stop for these brief moments.  I just am thinking about my next step, the trail ahead of me, or the beauty around me.  There are times when I am literally not thinking about anything else except the moment I am in.  It is these moments I crave, moments when I am only focused on the present.  

Around 11:20 am, I starting hitting patches of snow on the trail.  I could keep walking in boots through these, and I kept waiting to put on my snowshoes.  After a solid hour and a half without stopping, I got to the lake, still having not needed to put snowshoes on.  I was immediately struck by the beauty of the lake while the snow was falling.  I took a few pictures, but cell phone cameras never capture landscapes well.  Rarely do digital cameras do nature justice, but it is a little better.  I walked around the west edge of the lake crossed over to the north end, and continued up the trail towards "The Brothers."  The Brothers is a pair of peaks about 6800 ft tall.  I was not going to summit, but I did walk up the trail as if I were, and this took me into the Valley of Silent Men.  Walked for about 45 minutes, and got stuck in a dead end.  I saw the trail on the other side of the river, and I went to backtrack to find the fork.  I found the fork in about 2 minutes, but I decided to head out.  

I was back at Lena Lake around 1 pm.  I ate lunch, took another picture, and began walking back to the car.  I was in the parking lot at 2:30 pm.

Orchid: Seeing the Lake for the first time.

Onion: Not needing my snowshoes.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 29 Mar. 19 & 20 - Cape Alava, again

Total Distance: Approximately 7.0 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft. 
Time: 11:30 am Sat. - 12:00 pm Sun.
Weather: Mostly cloudy with rain off and on Saturday.  Beautiful sunny morning on Sunday.

Yes, I did the same trip this weekend that I did two weeks ago.  The only difference was I had one of my best friends from high school with me.  It was the same friend that got me to go on a hike 29 weeks ago right before he flew out.  This last weekend, he was coming up to start his spring break.  The options were for either us to hang out at my house, but I suggested we go camp out overnight somewhere.  When I was describing the overnighter I did two weeks ago, he said "let's go there." 

He flew in late Friday night, we went to the store, packed our packs, loaded the car, and were asleep by midnight with our alarms set for an early departure.  Woke up and hit the road, we were in Port Angeles by 8:30 am and had a delicious breakfast at Traylor's. After breakfast, we went and picked up our permit, and by 9:30 am, we were back on the road.

We got to the trail head at 11:30 am.  The hike was great.  We were moving the whole time, and my friend was enjoying the beauty of the forest.  We were on the beach by 1:00 pm, right as the high tide was hitting the beach.  While I was here two weeks ago, I did not remember the tide getting as high.  It was pounding the drift wood right near the campsites.  After watching the waves for a bit, we got camp set up and took two hour nap.

We got up and walked south down to Wedding Rocks.  There were lots of people around on the beach.  There were groups of high school age kids and a big group of boy scouts.  We climbed up on the big rock and had a good snack break.  We walked around and found what we think were some of the petroglyphs in the area.  We walked back north and continued past camp.  I did not head far in this direction two weeks ago, so it was really nice to see different parts of the coast.  Just north of the border of of the National Park and the Ozette Indian Reservation, the coast opens up to this cove where the vastness of the ocean stretches to the north and parts of Canada were visible.

We go back to camp around 5:30 pm and fixed dinner.  Right around the time dinner was ready, and we were getting our campfire going, it started raining. We fought the rain for the next few hours.  Luckily it wasn't a very hard rain, but it did require us to work hard for our fire.  Around 9 pm, the rain stopped, and we stayed up to await the full moon that was closer than any other in the last twenty years.

Finally saw the moon, but it was behind the clouds.  We got in the tent around 10:15 pm, and I think I was asleep in less than 5 minutes.  We got up around 9:15 am and fixed breakfast.  We had packed up by 10:30 am and hit the trail by 10:40 am.  We booked it back, it took 1 hour and 5 minutes.  Unfortunately, my friend had a flight at 7 pm, and we had to get moving back home.

Orchid: Spending the night with my best friend in one of my favorite places.

Onion: Short trip/visit with my friend, time goes too fast.

Picture:

 

Google Map

Week 28 Mar. 12 - Packwood Lake Trail

Total Distance: 13.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 3676 ft. 

     Min: 1700 ft.  Max: 2885 ft.
Time: 12:15 pm - 5:00 pm 
Weather: Cool, overcast, and rainy with short periods of freezing rain. 

Well, I had a great time snowshoeing because anytime snowshoeing is a great time. But, there were a lot of things hat made this a tough, bittersweet outing in the woods.

First, the plan was to go with a friend on Sunday, but she backed out Friday evening.  Looking at the avalanche danger rose for the weekend on Friday evening, Saturday was the safer day.  I went to bed with alarms set, but I was still not 100% committed.  I finally got up at 8 am, after my alarms had gone for a few hours.  And it took me until about 9 to get out of the door, plus I had to stop and get gas.  I knew it was a long hike with a long drive, and I was getting a late start.  This was the first mistake.

After driving for a good two hours, I finally get to Packwood.  I had my snowshoe route book with me, and it said to get to Packwood and "turn right after the Ranger Station." Well I was looking for a Ranger Station as I drove out of town.  I found a place to turn around, went back to a gas station and asked where the road was.  I looked up the directions the night before on my laptop and iPad.  I could have easily gotten the name of the road the turn was on, but I didn't.  This was the second mistake.

The trailhead is 6 miles of WA -Highway 12, and at mile 3.5, I could not get my car through the patch of snow.  I got turned around and would begin my walk on the road.  I took a second to get geared up: boots, gaiters, poles, strapped my snowshoes to my pack, rain gear on, and started walking, fast.  It was about 12:15 pm, and I knew if I was going to get to the lake I would have to go quickly.  In about 10 minutes I came across two big down tress, so I would not have been able to drive much farther from where I parked.  This was also when I realized that no one else was on the trail ahead of me or I would have seen their cars.  I was excited by a day alone on the trail.

As always, I was over dressed, especially with my pace, and soon I was sweating.  I waned to power through the road section, so I just kept going.  After about an hour, I was ready for some water.  And then it hit me, mistake number three, this one was the BIG ONE.  I left all three water bottles in my car.  I had almost left them in my house.  Running through the house right before I left, I saw them by the sink.  When I grabbed them, I just through them in the front seat.  When I parked and got out of the car, I completely forgot them.  It was too far to turn around and get them and still make it to the lake, so I thought I could just grab some handfuls of snow as I got thirsty and let it melt in my mouth.

I walked and walked. I rarely stopped, only to take pictures or use the bathroom.  I was constantly checking the time, nervous about no water and a potential late evening.  I also kept weirding myself out.  On the trail there were tons of elk, deer, and coyote tracks.  With the lack of noise being made and my rain gear making soft, subtle sounds, I started to mentally spiral into fear.  I would turn around quickly an expect to see something, but I was alone... every time.

Finally at 2:30 pm, I turned around to head back to the car.  I was a little sore, but more nervous about the lack of water and the sunset seemed impending.  I was out a little quicker on the way down.  I was back walking on the road by 4. Around this time, the sun started peaking out a bit.  Around 4:30 pm, a black tail deer came out of the trail about 100 feet ahead of me.  It was across the road so quick, I wasn't able to snag a picture.  I was back at the car at 4:55 pm.  I walked around front and saw two huge elk.  I turned off my cell phone tracking app.  When I got cell service again, I got the map downloaded behind the track, see it here.  I was less than a mile from the lake... 

Orchid: The walk down from 4 until about 5 pm.

Onion: Leaving all my water in the car forcing me to turn around not knowing how close I was to the lake.

Picture:

Google Map

Week 27 Mar. 5 & 6 - Cape Alava

Total Distance: Approximately 5.2 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 500 ft. 

Time: 11:35 am Sat. - 12:05 pm Sun.
Weather: Partly cloudy with some magnificent sun breaks.

So this hike started has an Outdoor Club trip, but getting back to school on Wednesday and going back out on Friday was just too unreasonable for the kids.  As a result, I decided to cancel the school trip and instead go out myself.  

I got up at 6:30 am on Saturday and drove to the trailhead.  I was there around 11:30am.  The walk to Cape Alava from the Ozette Ranger Station is 3.1 miles.  I began the walk at 11:35 and was at the beach by 1:00 pm.  A pretty good pace, i thought, and by the time I hit the beach the sun was out.  I set up camp, and packed a small day back and walked down south to Wedding Rocks, about a mile away.  Apparently there are petroglyphs here, but I could not find them.  I spent time sitting and reflecting.  I love the wilderness so much.  I thought this hiking commitment would have satisfied my appetite for wild places.  I fear the appetite is only growing and becoming harder to satisfy.

Anyway, after searching in vain for the petroglyphs for about an hour, I went back to camp.  Got back around 5:45 pm and made dinner, watched the sun set into the Pacific and put all the little things away before heading into my tent.  I was going into my tent to read, but it was 7:15 pm and I could not keep my eyes open.  I laid my head down and was asleep by 7:30 pm.  I woke up the next morning at 8:30 am.  It was the best sleep I have had in years.

I had my oatmeal and coffee, put camp away, and started the walk out by 10:20am.  I was at the car at 11:53am.  All I could think about was how I wish I wasn't leaving.

Orchid: First solo night in the wild.

Onion: Leaving Sunday morning.

Picture:

Google Map