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| LOTA |
I’ve been there twice before and both times I
underestimated the difficulty of the trail.
I’ve only been there twice, because most years I don’t feel that I am in
good enough shape to tackle this trail and the trail is a little bit
creepy. It’s only creepy because of the
grave at the start of the trail and the remoteness of this hike. I’ve never had to share Lake of the Angels
with anyone.
The trail starts on the Hamma Hamm road about a mile or two
past the Lena Lake trail. There is a
boulder in the middle of the road that is easy to drive around. The boulder landed in the road this winter and it has not gathered any moss.
At the start of the hike I wondered what I was doing, maybe
I was too tired and ill for this hike.
Still on antibiotics for a sinus infection, suffering from insomnia and
PMS, perhaps I should just turn around.
But then I remembered that I often feel this way at the start of the
hike and I pushed on. I cheered up once
I reached a little clearing that was filled with all kinds of interesting
flowers.
It took me 4 hours to hike up to the lake and 3 hours to
hike down. I could have hiked up faster
but I spent a lot of time successfully looking for a liverwort that has not yet
been found in this state. I’ve sent a piece of it to David Wagner for
confirmation.
There was snow just past the pond of the false prophet and
route finding became a little bit of an issue at that point. I had my GPS and the foot prints of others to
confirm that I was on the correct route.
The lake was beautiful as usual and it was about 3/4ths
melted out. The nice part about getting
up there so early in the season was the lack of bugs.
My shoes got wet and muddy just like they always do on this
hike, but I noticed the sign that says you should wear boots on this trail is
missing.
This is a tough trail, even for me in the shape I am in right
now. I was tired and I was kind of glad
when the hike ended. If I had slept more
the night before I’m sure I would have felt better.
I’ll be back again this year I think as this hike will be a
great way for me to lose weight. I
probably burned a pound of fat. Be
warned the trail is steep and muddy and not maintained. In two spots one has to climb with their
hands to get over a rock wall. Going up
is okay, coming back down is a little scary.
9 miles with 3,400 feet elevation gain
I'll post more pictures later.
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| Rivulariella gemmipara (Chiloscyphus gemmiparus )confirmed as the first find of this in the state of Washington |
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| Allotropa virgata |
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| A free living cyano bacteria |
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| Carl had a tougher hike than I did |
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| Rock in the middle of the Hamma Hamma road |
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| Mud on the "trail" |
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| Steep section of trail |
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| Creek is the trail |
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| Leptogium rivulare (I think) |
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| Rivulariella gemmipara |
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| Jungermannia exsertifolia |
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| Tiny, tiny unknown aquatic liverwort |
