Hiked in to Packwood Lake on trail #78. Nice day, the trail is clear of snow and blowdowns. A few muddy places, but not bad. No one else at the lake, checked out one of the campsites along the side of the lake, found the fire pit full of tin cans etc., and a plastic bag of beer bottles in the pit toilet on the floor. My friend and I put the trash and bottles in other plastic bags and hauled it out. Before heading out, we hiked to the end of the lake, again, trail ok, no snow. We hiked back to the car via the service road/trail, no blow downs on that either. We met a service person from the dam coming in on an ATV, and he took the garbage for us which was great as we were tired of it hanging and swaying from our day packs.

We did our monthly group PNWH backpacking trip, up to Packwood Lake this weekend. The trail itself is in great shape...ok, minus the horse that had the ""trots"" in front of us. Yuck. Saw almost no one-due to the rain. We camped just past the Goat Rocks Wilderness boundary on an area that jutted out into the lake. Some of the group dayhiked up to Mosquito Lake and did hit snow, but it was small patches and dirty. Just avoid the campsites near the ranger station at the head of the lake, and it is a pretty place to backpack to. Those sites had a lot of scarring and garbage sadly. The loons on the lake are just gorgeous, and the fish were jumping.

I drove up to the Packwood lake trailhead Saturday after work to find it deserted. I slept in the car, and Sunday morning I went back into Packwood for breakfast, then returned to the trailhead. I hit the trail at 2 pm, not in any hurry. The first two miles of the aquaduct trail were snow-free, then it was patchy for a while, then got deep enough to put the snowshoes on, then it disappeared again, then got deep again, then was all gone when I got to the lake. If I went back tomorrow, I would definitely leave the snowshoes home. There was some blow-down to negotiate, but nothing to bad. The lake is very scenic, with a small island making a nice foreground to pictures of Johnson Peak in the distance. I explored the aquaduct entry area, and an old cabin that had a strange boat in it, apparently made of skins stretched over a frame. There was a nice campsite at the northeast corner of the lake, so I settled in for the sunset, made dinner and hung my hammock. There was deer poop everywhere, at least 20 piles in my campsite alone. I was very glad I hadn't brought the dog and a tent. The temperatures were hot when the wind came up the valley, and cold if they came from over the lake and down from the glaciers. I was serenaded to sleep by an owl and the yipping of some coyotes when the moon came out. Monday morning I lounged around taking pictures, then motivated at noon and headed to the south end of the lake, and got some nice views of Rainier. I needed my GPS to find the Upper Lake Creek trail due to some snow in the woods, but once found it was easy to follow. It wound its way upstream just a few feet up the bank that borders the creek bottom, which is very interesting. I couldn't tell if a forest grew up in the middle of a braided stream, or if a stream had invaded a forest. I had hoped to go far enough to get a view of Packwood Glacier, but once I was about 1/2 mile beyond Beaver Creek, I knew that was an unrealistic goal, still 2 more miles ahead, and the woods were pretty dense, so a view may have been unlikely anyway. I went back to the lake, and explored the mud flats where the streams meet the lake, getting some more good photos of Rainier and Johnson Pk. I did the two miles back to camp in just 65 minutes because the lakeshore trail is snow-free and in excellent shape. The permit box at the wilderness boundary says there is a $100 fine for not having a permit even for day use, and there was no pencil in the box. Oh well. The 11th essential: a pen. The lake was 90 percent melted out Monday morning, 100 percent by late afternoon. Monday night was another display of planets, stars and the moon, with more owls but no coyotes. Tuesday dawned gray and drizzly, so I packed up and then hung out a while under my tarp that I use as a rain fly for the hammock, hoping for some last views or maybe an end to the rain. At 10:30 I gave up and left, and the rain stopped about an hour later, so the delayed start did help. I went back a slightly different way, heading up and over a 200 ft bump, following some snowmobile tracks, instead of countouring around the bump like on the way in. I got back at 1 pm, 2 1/2 hours to go 4 1/2 miles, maybe 1/3 snow-covered. As I approached the trailhead, I saw red tape crossing the trail in several places, and there were small bits of paper held down by rocks at numerous spots, each piece of paper marked with notes like ""#2"" or ""#8"". Weird. When I stopped for lunch in Packwood, I was informed that someone had committed suicide at the trailhead Monday night. The tape and markers then made tragic sense. How sad. Still it was a great trip, and having the entire lake to myself for three days made it special. I was surprised at the quantity of truly giant trees, the scenic quality of the lake, and the great mountain views. The downsides to this hike, the crowds and the motorized access, were not in evidence this trip. A big thanks goes out to Bev Blanchard and Eric Willhite, whose recent trip reports alerted me to the fact that this trip was now open.

After arriving in the town of Packwood, WA on Friday night, around 7:30 p.m., it was decided, ok I decided that my brother Don, my daughter Lori and my dog Sophia would stay in a motel for the evening. It was our understanding that a lot of snow had fallen during the week, and I did not want to start snowshoeing after dark for 5-6 miles to reach the trailhead. When we arrived in Packwood, we did not see any snow at all, and asked about it when checking in to the motel, no snow there, just rain and hail. I guess when you get on Internet and type in Packwood, WA, it is White Pass information that you receive. The people at the motel said that the road to the trailhead was clear up to about 1 mile prior to the lake.

After setting up ""camp"" in the motel, we took a walk in the dark, and came across a herd of elk, exciting, walking across the road from the backside of Packwood. The stars were out and it was beautiful, promising to be a good day on Saturday.

We got up on Saturday morning, packed up, and headed for breakfast since we could not fire up the stove at the motel. We jumped back into the truck after breakfast, and headed for what we thought would be at least a mile hike to the trailhead of the Lake. Low and behold, we were able to drive all the way up, with a bit of snow on the road just before the trailhead parking area. Very exciting to say the least. The weather was cool up there, but beautiful. We unloaded the truck, hefted our packs on, including Sopia's on her. We decided to carry the snowshoes until we had to use them.

We dropped down to Road #066, the service road to the lake. No snow on the road as far as we could see, so made pretty good time. By the time we arrived at the staging area for the Forest Service, it was time to start taking off some of the ""winter"" hiking clothes, as it was warm. We were hiking on snow by then, but still carrying our snowshoes, no sense to put them on unless we had to. After about an hour of post holing every once in awhile etc., we decided that we had better wear the snowshoes. We made much better time with the snowshoes, and so much easier to walk with the full packs. We did have about 4 trees to go under, around and over, no fun but doable. We had about 1-2' of snow along the way, maybe as much as 3' in somes places. Once we arrived at Packwood Lake, we were able to take the snowshoes off. The West side of the lake is pretty much snowed in while the East side is mostly snowfree. The old ranger cabin at the lake is locked up again which is good as it is a historical cabin. There was about 6-9"" of snow there. As soon as we crossed the bridge over the outlet of the lake, we were mostly on bare trail, with just a couple of small patches of snow. The lake is mostly frozen over, with about 20' melted away from the East side of the lake. No one else at the lake when we arrived. We found camp, set up, had our lunch and then Don, Sophia and I headed up the trail for the end of the lake. Lori decided to stay in camp and just rest. (This was a first backpack trip for her in a very long time and a first with snowshoes.) We could see steam coming up from the end of the lake and wanted to check it out. Of course we found ""dry"" wood or branches for a fire that night along the way, and knew that we would have to ""pack"" it back to camp. Arriving at the end of the lake, we found the steam radiating up from the sand bar as it was so warm. Mt. Rainier was so beautiful from the far end of the lake. Johnson Peak was beautiful from our camp, with all the snow on it. Arriving back in camp, it was time to think about dinner, and evening, and wondering when we could all go to bed as we were very tired after a beautiful day. It was fairly warm during the day until about 5:00 p.m. and then turned very cold.

On Sunday, 21st, we got up to clear skies again, got breakfast, broke camp and headed back to the truck about 9:50 am. We hated to leave, but it was time, and all of us having to get back to work on Monday. We decided to take trail #78 back to the truck. We carried our snowshoes till we got back to the old ranger cabin, then put them on. We had a tree, small one that we had to go up and over just after leaving the lake. The trail is covered in snow with 1'to 4' along the way. It is a steady uphill pull for about 4 miles, and all of this pretty much in snow. Lori and I were tired to say the least hiking out. There were about 4 trees that we had to go over on the way out, 5 counting the one just up from the lake. There is one very dicy section on the snow that is not recommended for kids until it melts out. If a person was to lose their footing, it is a long way to the bottom, very scary. There is one more short section of the same type, but not like that first one. The first one is probably about 3 miles from the lake, not sure on that one, but you can't miss it. It was very nice to get off the snow and on to ""regular"" trail. We met 3 young guys going in to the lake, not long after the dicy section, wearing shorts, tennis shoes, no socks, and carrying a water bottle, small one. I guess one of them had a very small day pack but that is all. Not a good thing to do on the trail conditions at this time. The day was beautiful, and very warm when we got back to the truck and only one other vehicle in the parking lot. On the way back to Packwood, we did see 3 more vehicles heading for the trailhead.

We stopped in Packwood at Ma & Pa Burgers, a regular thing to do when we come out from the lake, very good food and ice cream! Then Don drove to Morton for me to pick up my car, and Lori, Sophia and all our gear were put in to my car, and we headed for Chehalis, and Don for Renton. After getting to Chehalis, Lori picked up her van and headed for home in Matlock. A very good weekend even if it was hard for a snowshoe/backpack trip, first of the season.