Lena Lake — Sunday, Aug. 23, 2015

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

We set out from Tacoma at 10:00 this morning. Followed the directions provided on the Hiking Guide, which were accurate, and the trip was faster than the approximately two hours that Google Maps predicted for us, taking us about 1:40:00 to get to the trailhead. We loaded our toddlers into our Poco Packs, and off we went, to the easily located and conveniently marked trailhead, marked by a large wooden sign. Allow me to state that the hike was more difficult than we had been led to believe, not just by the guide, but also by the various trip reports published on the website. I'm not certain whether people making these reports are packless day hikers or not, but with toddlers attached to our backs, this one was not the easy jaunt that we had been expecting. In addition to being more difficult, it's also markedly longer and steeper than the WTA report claims. According to the WTA report, the hike is 5.0 miles roundtrip. FALSE! This hike is 6.4 miles roundtrip (as evident both by GPS, and by the information that I didn't see near the trailhead), and virtually the entire way out to lower Lena Lake is uphill. Fortunately, the trail conditions are fairly forgiving, most of it being crushed gravel or dirt path, but there are stretches where the path is stone or knotted roots. There are toe grabbers that occasionally jump up, and some stretches of the trail are dry and loose, and present some slip hazards (ask my bruised backside about that one). The initial portion is the Trail Guide-mentioned switchbacks, which sweep back and forth a dozen or so times, and this is where a significant chunk of the elevation gain is made. It's not easy, and it gets a bit tiresome trekking back and forth without ever seeming to put a whole lot of lateral distance from the parking lot. But after this stretch (which consumes close to two miles of the outbound and inbound legs of the hike) the hike takes you deeper into the mountains, over a pair of well-constructed wooden bridges, and on to a much more gently climbing stretch of trail. For the next mile, there are old-growth and second-growth trees, the sounds of creeks and brooks babbling below, the occasional fissure bubbling water out across the trail, and a gigantic rock overhanging an easy turnout right next to the trail. It's huge, it's impressive, and a 6' tall adult can stand underneath it without banging their head. At about the 3rd mile on the outbound leg, a trail splits off to the Upper Lena Lake, or you can continue straight ahead to the overlook for Lower Lena Lake. My family and I opted for the lower, and took the opportunity to hydrate and eat a snack, as well as take a few pictures of the lake. At today's sighting, the lake level was low, and the air was hazy from the Eastern Washington wildfires, but the vista was still a nice spectacle. At the overlook, flies were a bit of a problem, in addition to a couple of bothersome bees. I blame this on sweaty human bodies, the presence of dogs, and the tasty morsels of food present. They weren't too annoying, but did require the occasional flailing hand to drive them away. The return trip was much easier, thanks to gravity doing a good portion of the work, and it was a welcome sight indeed to see the back end of the family car. Not an easy hike, but nothing too awfully strenuous, I just wish for more accurate information to be given on the WTA Hiking Guide information board concerning distance, in order to more effectively prepare the legs and mind for the additional distance.