Hike #21 Upper Lena Lake. The parents were doing well so I woke up early and headed out for an adventure.

Arrived at the trailhead at 7:30 and made it up the 2.5 miles to Lena Lake in an hour. No one really on the trail yet besides a few overnight groups coming down. I made the turn off for the Upper Lena Lake trail, leaving behind the wide trail for the narrow, overgrown, trees down upper trail.

The snow started around 2800ft but didn't get confident until about 3300ft. I had one instance where a snow bridge broke under me and I went falling. I bent one of the poles I was using and it nearly impaired me as I fell on it. Thankfully it just left a good size scratch.

Trail finding once the snow was consistently covering was a little more difficult so my mileage rate slowed down considerably. Thankfully I was able to keep on trail with landmarks, maps and a little off trail hiking to avoid the snow.

I finally made it to a section of snow with a very considerable incline that had significant consequences if I fell. I quickly made the call to turn around since I hadn't seen another person in 2+ hours. I was only about 3/4 mile from the lake but it was the correct call.

Of course after I turned around I saw 5 different people behind me. All thanked me for the kick steps and blazing the way. I gave them each the intel I had and they went on (only two of them had the proper equipment (aka ice axes, crampons, helmets) to attempt... one guy was in running shoes and cotton clothes).

On the way back down I ran into a guy with his dog. I asked him if he knew he was in a National Park.. he answered yes... I asked if he saw the sign at the park boundary 2 miles back that said no pets. He answered yes... sometimes I just don't understand people.

I made it back to Lena Lake and enjoyed the sun, view of the lake and some leftover fried rice for lunch. The trip back to the parking lot was really quick. I passed about 20 groups heading down and about the same number going up.

Arrived at the trailhead at 9:30 on Saturday. Lot was full and a couple cars were parked on the road. Not surprising given the nice weather and holiday weekend.

Trail was in great shape. Fairly busy with lots of day hikers and a few backpackers.

The campsites were mostly full when I got there around 11:30 but I was able to find a spot. It would’ve been harder if I was with a group.

The toilets at camp were closed.

The trail on the hike back on Sunday was very busy. The parking lot when I left around 10:30 was completely full and about 30 cars were parked on the road.

Arrived at the trailhead at 7:30 to at least 15 cars already in the lot.  The impression was that they were mostly from overnight backpackers.

The outhouses are in good shape (even had TP), although I never count on that.  The men’s room door lock in not functional.

The trail is in great shape and much less water on the trail than 2 weeks ago.  The creeks are high and water is flowing fast.  

Multi night backpack to camp at Lena lake starting on Friday. Many of the campsites were flooded as the lake is pretty high right now. The creek through the middle of the campground was also very high. There was a slack line over a log to cross the creek off the trail a bit but we weren’t comfortable going that way. Tried to hike to Upper Lena on Saturday and got turned around at about 0.5 miles from the entrance to the national park. Still some pretty serious snow cover that is starting to melt out and it didn’t feel stable. If we had hiked it before and knew where the trail was we might have pushed on but without knowing it felt risky. We got back to the campground at about noon and it was starting to fill up. Most sites were taken by about 4pm unless people were willing to cross the creek on the log. A great and easy early season backpack! 

The biggest hurdle of the weekend was in trying to come back to Seattle. We got to Kingston at 1:30 to catch the ferry and we were told it we wouldn’t be on a ferry until 4pm at the earliest. When you start to see a line forming on the side of the road make sure to get in, they won’t let you buy a ticket unless you have a “tally card” they’re handing out in that line; workers were turning back multiple cars who didn’t come from west of town. We stopped for lunch and it’s apparently been like that every Sunday for weeks. With the long wait we decided to drive back through Gig Harbor. 

First of all, when you’re planning on doing a medium length day hike, you should probably hit the short exploration trails and points of interest after you finish the hike in the middle of the 90 degree weather. We started the day at 9:00 by visiting staircase rapids area north of Lake Cushman and then took the 2480 to get to Lena. Can’t recommend took way longer to get to the trailhead seeing the road was unpaved. Not nearly as difficult as the road to summit lake. The hike to Lena was better than the actual destination. Old growth was so ever present even as we accented to the summit. There was a really neat crossing with large boulders covering the river. Fill up your bottle, you’ll need it I’m sure. The reason why I said the journey was better than the destination itself was because of how many people were up there. There are campsites all along the lakeshore, aka, the only place to access the lake. There’s a nice boulder-y viewpoint with no lake access which was nice for lunch. The way down went pretty fast. We saw a wta work party wrapping up for the day. Thanks! We hopped in the car and within minutes, we were cruising the 101 on the hood canal, on the way home.