Читать книгу One Night Wilderness: Portland. Top Backcountry Getaways Within Three Hours of the City онлайн

31 страница из 57

This trip gives you a choice: For an easier hike, follow the popular trail to attractive Lena Lake, a lower-elevation destination that is open most of the year. For more dramatic scenery, continue on a rougher trail into the high country to spectacular Upper Lena Lake, one of the most beautiful lakes in the Olympic Mountains. Hikers with children younger than teenagers should stop at Lena Lake.

Getting There

Drive 110 miles north of Portland on I-5 to Olympia and take Exit 104 for US 101. After 6 miles take Exit 101 to stay on US 101, and then drive 43.8 miles to a junction with paved Hamma Hamma Road near milepost 318. Turn left (west), drive 6.5 miles to a T-junction, turn right, and then go another 1.3 miles to the well-signed Lena Lake Trailhead.

GPS COORDINATES

Hiking It

The wide, heavily traveled, and gently graded trail soon leaves the river-bottom environment dominated by moss-draped big-leaf maples and gradually ascends a tangled forest of second-growth Douglas firs, western red cedars, and western hemlocks. The first 1.5 miles climb 14 switchbacks on a forested hillside before entering the lush canyon of loudly cascading Lena Creek. At 1.9 miles the trail crosses the creek on an unnecessarily large wooden bridge at a point where the stream flows underground and the creekbed is usually dry.