Lena Lake — Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025

If you bring a dog, PLEASE pack out your poop bags or leave your dog at home. There are no garbage cans at the trailhead and the outhouses are closed for the winter season. Unfortunately, people have been leaving their poop bags around/inside the permit envelope box/station, and it's disgusting.

Alright, just had to get that off my chest before diving into the rest of my report. We arrived at the trailhead at 11:30am and there were only two other cars in the parking lot. The road has snow on it, but tires have carved grooves that reach the pavement all the way up until you get to the parking area (then it gets messy). Even though the asphalt is visible, there is still an icy ridge of snow down the center of the road that is about nine inches high, so I recommend higher-clearance vehicles only. We drove a Subaru Crosstrek and had minimal problems. There was a rear-wheel-drive pickup truck when we returned after our hike that we had to save because they were stuck in the parking lot. 

The trail overall is in great condition, all snow considering. We used gaiters and microspikes 80% of the time. Though gaiters weren't totally necessary, they were nice to have for comfort. The trail is quite wet, but the rocks make it so it's not muddy. There were only two small trees over the trail, nothing to worry about. The snow was more slushy than ice, but microspikes made the trip a lot safer and enjoyable. 

We stopped to have lunch at the big overlook rock at Lena Lake. I found some trash others had left behind and packed it out. Please Leave No Trace. We decided to not go all the way down to the lake, so I can't speak to that section of trail.

We got back to the trailhead around 3:30pm (6.2 miles according to Gaia) and the drive back was easy.