Packwood Lake

This one's for the fishers... first, the recap: Mosquitoes on the trail, but not really at the lake (don't stop walking on trail and you should be fine). A little disappointing showing up after 4.5 miles only to see a line-up of five ATV's, but hey- they were only around for the day (should have payed 'em five bucks to haul my pack up there).. lake is HUGE with very well maintained/used camp sites and already-set-up fire pits to make the work easy (we passed up on the social aspect and headed to the opposite end on the left side of the lake... 6.5 miles total to our site). TO THE FIVE GUYS HALFWAY DOWN THE LAKE ON THE LEFT SIDE: DON'T shoot off guns next time, PLEASE put out your fire when you leave, NEVER throw an industrial size spray-paint can in the fire because, like we saw, it will NOT burn, and for the sake of those who don't want bears eating their faces off, NEVER AGAIN spread out the remainder of your Costco trail-mix bag around the entire camp site, because now no one will be able to use that site or feel safe when animals get smart enough to know camp site + humans = food.

OK- fishing: we brought two poles, and were excited because when we first got there a guy had caught an 8-incher in five minutes! Welp, for us, let's just say you need to either be able to cast your spinner out a quarter of a mile into the middle of the lake, get a raft out there and troll, or be the luckiest person on earth because we literally tried everything we could w/the gear we had and came up empty handed. Four colors of spinners and a couple soar arms, weight on the bottom with power bait floating (yes we used bait even though you're not supposed to), and a bobber sitting out for hours... nothing. Here's the problem: the lake is WAY too big to fish from the side (and the shore is all rocks), it's 160 feet deep in some parts, and with easy access to ATV's and dirtbikes, I'm sure most fish won't want to come even close to shore (plus not too many bugs out on the lake b/c of constant slight breeze)... with that being said, we still had a good time and if you get a chance to bring up a raft to get out in the middle, you're going to catch a huge sucker that's been waiting his (or her) whole life for you!!

First time out; will probably come back; and actually not too sore the next day (today) after 13 miles and 30 lbs on my back! Enjoy :)