Lena Lake

It was time to begin our next backpack, this time in the Olympic National Forest. It was our first chance to take the kids backpacking with their Popo, which is the name that they called my dad. We looked for a trip that everyone would enjoy, so we settled on the Lena Lake trail. This was a spot off of Hood Canal. We drove up the previous day to my mom's house to drop off some gear and get ready for this trip. After a good night's rest, we were driving over to Olympia and then up the 101 until we were right outside of Hamma Hamma. We easily found the Lena Lake trailhead where we met up with Popo.

We packed our gear and then were off. Zyla seemed to be the one to lead the way on this day and she had been impressive to me. This was not a quiet trail as there were many folks coming down the trail. We figured there might be a good crowd given that the 4th of July was coming up soon, though, there were not as many people going up as coming down. Also, it seemed the majority of the people were day hikers. There were many people giving the kids compliments. That should boost their spirits a bit because they were still at that stage where they were not quite sure if they enjoyed backpacking yet.

The trail had quite a bit of elevation gain, but was in really good shape given the popularity of the hike. It was a rather easy going and there didn't seem to be any danger of falling off the trail which Jacqueline seemed to enjoy. The views were a lot of trees with the occasional bridge over the small creeks, some of which were dry. Only one spot could we actually see something like a waterfall, so as far as the scenic nature of the hike, you had to enjoy a good Northwest forest to be happy here. Given that we were now desert dwellers, we were happy for this change of scenery and for the cool temperatures.

It was only a few hours of uphill hiking before we were able to see the lake. We had to hike nearly to the other side of it to find our camping spot. Given the large size and amount of sites, we figured in would be a busy night in camp. Fortunately, we were wrong as possibly the drizzly forecast for the following day delayed other people's trip plans because there were only a few other parties sharing the lake with us for the evening. There seemed to be a few people around when we got there, but after throwing down the tent on some level ground, we were able to hang out by the lake for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

The kids quickly found interesting ways to entertain themselves by setting up a store at the end of a long downed tree that marked the edge of our camp. We entertained ourselves reading books, playing cribbage, and just generally relaxing in the cool mountain environment. Everyone seemed content with our camp spot and we all slept fairly well through the night preparing for the following day's hike.
Awaking the next day, we prepared for the worst. The forecast called for rain, but so far we were lucking out. It was still fairly cool and overcast, but no precipitation as of yet. We had a leisurely start to the day's hike up the Brother's Trail, but I was afraid that the hike would get shelved before it had even begun.

We came to a creek crossing which looked like it could be challenging for the kids. One wet child could easily ruin the trip, so I crossed first and then helped everyone else make it across. Luckily the logs were pretty well stacked to make the crossing easy enough for the kids to do it. After that, we skirted the far side of the lake for a while before heading up through the mist into the dark forest. Jacqueline was happy with this part of the day because this forest was much more alive then the more manicured trail that we followed yesterday. Slugs, millipedes, and snails abounded along with many varieties of plants, flowers, and fungi.

I could tell that Popo really enjoyed being out there with the kids and they loved having him there. He was constantly hiking with or talking to the kids, which is great to just have another voice to help them appreciate the wilderness. The trail was in okay shape. It went up pretty steeply, but given our lack of heavy packs, it did not seem to bother anybody. There was one point where we had to cross on a bridge that Conrad was not too sure of. Instead of doing the bridge, we took a much harder crossing through the dry creek bed below which was hard to get down to and back up from. Eventually the trail started to get a bit too shady, so we said the heck with it and turned around. We knew we were going to have to at some point anyway.

On the way back down, the weather couldn't really decide what it was going to do, but by the time that we made it back to camp, it had decided that it would rain. Most of the afternoon was spent hiding from the rain in the tent, reading or playing cards. It seemed okay given the weather and we made the best of it. Eventually it stopped and we were able to get out and hang out with Popo for dinner and more fun around camp. During the night, we had some intermittent rain again, but by morning, it was mostly just a hazy fog that filled up our camp. By this point there was not much else to do but high tail it out of there.

We had an easy stroll downhill and were able to finish off the trip with lunch at a seafood place in Hamma Hamma. It was alright, but overpriced. Jacqueline broke her vegan diet for a small bit of seafood and immediately regretted it. I was pretty proud of how hard she had been working to eat vegan and this was not a great experience to break the diet. I did not have the mental fortitude to do that. We parted ways with Popo, but we were glad that we had a chance to share this experience with him. I hope there are many more trips in the future for the five of us.