Packwood Lake — Friday, May. 31, 2024

(Actual Backpack Trip Report Below First Paragraph)

It sucks when someone breaks into your car. This is the first time it has happened to me and my buddies while I was backpacking at Packwood lake. There was nothing valuable visible in my particular car so I'm not sure why it was targeted of the ~20 or so that were up there overnight (no others were hit from the report). I don't really want to potentially advertise to ill folk about this, but items of value were stolen and both my friend and I feel violated that some of our personal things are now gone. Moving on, I want to thank the nice ranger up at the lake and anyone else involved to help get us the message as quickly as possible (we were planning on camping another day). I also want to thank the extremely kind person/people who decided to tape a garbage bag onto the shattered passenger door window; if we had not gotten a message the inside of my car would have likely been completely soaked with the forecasted rain! Upon arriving back to town, we talked to a half dozen locals, and apparently break-ins up at the trailhead are common which was not known to us based on our research or the information at the trailhead signage. The ranger even mentioned this being one of the only break-ins they heard about in two years. Which is right? It sounds like the locals of Packwood are seeing a lot more theft and crimes in town in the last few years. The theft was reported to the authorities, but this is here for you. Be warned!

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Backpacking up at the lake went well. The trail is great though there's a bit of horse manure so watch where you step. We got up a little late on Friday and there were at least 10-15 groups of backpackers ahead of us, but we managed to find a good site. Bugs were not bad if you plan on day-hiking, but if you are setting up for camping there are mosquitos out -- only a slight annoyance at most. Some fish jumping at the lake - even caught one fishing for a brief moment but slipped off at shore. The lake water is not ice-cold, but is still extremely cold, not enjoyable yet except for the boldest swimmers. Had a great warm sunny evening, and even saw some sort of beautiful cloud-bow effect as the impending weather moved in. On the last abbreviated day of our trip we went further up the valley but hit a large gushing creek about a mile past the end of the lake. The main trail here is somewhat impassable save for those willing to take a little risk and get quite the soaking.