Lena Lake

 


I was with a couple of new acquaintances last week, and one of the more perceptive people noticed my pants and hat and asked, “Are you into hiking and camping?”

“Yes,” I replied. “That’s really why we moved out here.”

Much later that day, I was about to part ways with the second person, and he said, “Hey, if you like


hiking, you should go to Lena Lake. I used to hike and camp there. It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks,” I said. “If you say I should go there, I shall.”

About 36 hours later, Ann, Mary and I were getting in the truck to head out for Lena Lake. It’s on the Olympic Peninsula, and like everything else, it is about two hours from Tacoma. There are three ways to get there – south through Olympia; north, crossing the Hood Canal, or west, skirting around the bottom and up alongside of the Hood Canal. Each divergent route is within a couple of minutes of drive time of the other, so we chose the western route, driving around the Hood Canal, because we


hadn’t been that way yet. From Tacoma, you take 16 West, which seems to be running north, to 3 South, which seems to be running west, to 106 West, which is certainly going more south, to 101 North, which is indeed running north, all the way up to Hamma Hamma Road, then go 8 miles and you’re there.

The drive was gorgeous. Hoodsport looked great, as did the smaller towns around it. We feel very lucky to have our house on the water here, but realize there are a lot of lucky people in Washington with houses on the water.

When we started the hike, Mary was more interested in sniffing the bushes than heading up the mountain. The trail is in National Forest land, not National Park, so it is dog-friendly, which meant that


Mary had a lot to sniff. And we got the feeling that she wasn’t particularly interested in seeing Lena Lake. She got outvoted, though, so we proceeded with our 3 ½ mile hike up the mountain. The lake was stunning, and there’s a nice little campground up there. Ann and I decided that if we come back to camp, though, we’ll probably car camp at the campground on the road and day hike to the lake. We have a new tent that we think will be Mary-compatible, but it is a campground tent, not a backpacking tent.

We had considered heading out on Saturday and camping, but ended up having a slower day around Tacoma on Saturday. It stormed a bit, and we had some hail and actually heard thunder, only about the third time we’ve heard it since moving to Washington, and it was a pretty weak, distant thump compared to a Midwest thunderstorm. On the hike up to Lena Lake on Sunday, we met campers hiking out, and they said they had weathered hard rain and hail there as well, so we felt pretty good about our day hike choice.

Mary liked the hike down the mountain much more than the hike up. Her attitude changed from willing to exuberant. It’s like she was a puppy again, running down the trail, all smiles and wags.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Big Drive

Image
Planning this road trip involved big, beautiful round numbers. COMO to TACOMA is right at 2,000 miles, or 30 hours of drive time, according to Google maps. You can take I-70 until it runs out, or go a little more north and take I-80, or even more and take I-90. We opted for the northern route, taking advantage of the late-season heat wave. Directions were easy. I-70 to KC, then 29 north to I-90 and I-90 west all the way to and through Washington. I was able to work on the drive. Our truck is a hybrid and generates power, so the laptop stayed fully charged and surprisingly well connected to the internet via the hotspot on my phone, usually not losing signal for more than a few minutes, mostly in the mountains. Aside from the working part, it felt like we were leaving for a vacation, although not nearly as well planned. I usually do the trip planning, mapping out routes, booking accommodations, and even scouting restaurants online. With this adventure, I didn’t know when we would b...
Read more

Intro

A lot of people have been asking about our move and how things are going, so I'm starting this blog to fill in our friends and maybe make some new ones. Don't worry that I'm doing this blog while I should be working. I'm still working full-time through the day. I'm doing this blog while I should be going to the gym. And this kind of drivel comes out of me like a firehouse, so there's really no effort on my part. I don't expect this to be as entertaining as my son Oliver's two blogs from the past two summers working at Yellowstone NP and Everglades NP  ( https://asummerinyellowstone.blogspot.com and  https://asummerintheeverglades.blogspot.com/ ),  but it will at least let you know that Ann and I made it here and are still kicking. 
Read more

The Loadout

Image
I may have to give up my man card, but I didn’t really want to tow a trailer across the country. I can tow a trailer. I was hauling trailers full of cattle from the age of 16 on. I’ve towed a too-heavy boat from Missouri to Lake Powell and back. I can drive towing a trailer. But a couple of years back when I bought our little camper, even though it’s a mere 21 feet long, I watched my fuel economy go from around 23 mpg to 7 mpg on the tow home. I was impressed that the fuel pump on my truck was capable of evacuating the gas from my tank that quickly.  It’s a tall camper, and it doesn’t exactly glide through the air. But perhaps even more than the horrible mileage, I wanted to be able to stop for the night at a motel, then go out for dinner somewhere, without worrying about parking something as long as a school bus, or going through a big ritual of unhooking and hooking up every day. We bought a camper shell specifically for the move, and I was really hoping everything fit. It ...
Read more