This hike is in our backyard (well, not literally) and made for a nice 8.6-mile jaunt today. As with nearly every trail in Larrabee State Park, there's plenty of uphill work involved, and a nice mixed, legacy forest.
We started at the North Chuckanut Mountain TH (Arroyo) and took the Hemlock Trail all the way to the lakes. Elevation gain from this starting point was about 1400 feet (according to AI), but feels like more . . . The trail is pretty quiet, people-wise--we saw fewer than 10 folks across 5 hours--and is blissfully shady. Once you near the lakes, about 3.2 miles in, the trail dips up and down, and gets a little narrow and rooty in places. The whole way is well-signed. There are a number of big Doug firs and cedars, especially hiking up from the Arroyo parking area.
We made Pine Lake our focus today. It's a little bigger than Cedar Lake and has two nice camping spots that are nice places to have lunch (as long as no one is there, of course). All in all, a very peaceful place to spend time. A couple types of wildflowers are in bloom, including some type of spirea. Happy and safe hiking, Everyone :-)
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