The weather guessers claimed that the chance of rain was
only 30% and any rain up at Lena Lake would be snow, so I decided to go
hiking. 30% was the lowest chance of
rain this week. They guessed wrong, it
rained for most of my hike and there was no show at all. I drove to the trail head in the rain and
arrived at about 9:45. I saw that
members of the Oly meet up hiking group were at the trailhead. I got off to a quick start so I could avoid
having anyone be annoyed with Patches and because I wanted solitude for this
hike.
As I headed up the trail I saw the others hikers a few times
and then I seemed to have left them in the dust. They must have been going pretty slow because
I’m not fast at all in the morning. I
was going as fast as I could go though.
I reached the lake at 11:10 having completed 3 miles in one hour and 25
minutes. The only stop I made was to
fill my water bottle at my favorite little waterfall on the trail. The last time I hiked up here that waterfall
was dry, but it’s running high now.
best tasting water anywhere |
I did not need to
put my new rain coat on until after I left lunch rock. I did not pause for lunch on the rock;
instead I headed for the privy. The composting toilet is still out of order but two exposed
wooden seats have been placed in the forest above the composting toilets. Why no privacy screens? No TP was provided. I figure that $55 parking ticket I got when
the rangers could not see my parking pass clearly displayed on my dash might
have covered the cost of a little TP. Oh
well, I always pack my own.
Looking over at Lunch rock from my lunch spot |
It was raining hard enough that I almost did not stop for
lunch in such an open area, but I was glad I stopped when the rain stopped and
a rainbow came out on the inlet end of the lake. I was hoping to get a nice picture of the
snow covered mountains with my DSLR but it was not to be today. I got a good picture there once with my
bridge camera and I’ve wanted to go back and reshoot it in raw with a DSLR.
After I left the rock, I picked my way through the moss
covered rocks and the forest until I found my way around the lake. The area at the outlet end of the lake is
very pretty but a bit difficult to traverse.
The way is littered with huge moss covered rocks and piles of old
moss covered driftwood. They say that many years ago
a rock slide came down off a nearby hill and dammed up Lena Creek thus creating
Lena Lake. You can find these boulders
at the far end and there is a seemingly corresponding rock slide area on the hill
above. But these are boulders, not
rocks, and they have been there for a long time. Perhaps the giant subduction zone earthquake
caused this landslide.
Land slide |
I wore my new ½ price REI Kimtah Event jacket for half the
hike. I’m so impressed with this new
jacket! It kept the rain off, it felt
great to wear and it did not sog out. I’ve
been wearing bad rain jackets ever since I started hiking; I had no idea how
good a good rain jacket could be! By the
time I got home my jacket was completely dry.
I always had to put my precip jackets in the dryer when I got home. The eVent is heavier than precip when it is
dry, but it lighter when it is wet since it does not sog out as much.
On the way out I spent about 5 minutes looking for the
geocache that I can never find.
I made it back to my car at about 3:15 and was happy to see
that I did not have a parking ticket. I
got into my car and quickly drove home and make it back to my kids just before
dark. I felt pretty good after my hike
even enough I had just hiked two days before.
My SPOT messenger was pretty much a failure on this hike, it
only sent 2 of the 5 messages I launched.
I’m going to look into getting a different brand. SPOT turned me down for their brand
ambassador program and the service is very Spotty, so it’s time for me look for me
to look for something new when my subscription expires in March.
When I got home my new GPS malfunctioned again.
My refurbished GPS will not communicate with my computer unless it is at room temperature, so I'm sending it back. The Garmen claimed they had never heard of such a fault before. I think the Garmen tech lied or was ignorant. He should have apologized for sending me a defective GPS to replace my perfectly good GPS that only needed a new case. I wish they would have just refurbished my unit and sent it back to me instead of sending me someone else's defective refurbished unit.
7.5 miles with 2,000 feet elevation gain. (12 Kilometers, with 610 meters elevation gain)
First view of lake from lunch rock |
Spring at inlet end of Lake |
Forest at the outlet end |
moss and scapania liverwort |
Patches sneaks into the picture and gets blinded |
Lake in summer and in winter, same vantage point |
witches butter |
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