Packwood Lake, now and then and beyond

All week, the weather forecasters were predicting sunshine for this day.  Silly us, we believed them and decided to hike to Packwood Lake.

The trail is gentle and mostly forested

Just a few blowdowns like this one

Pretty red flowering currant

and trillium

And the lovely little Lady's slippers and yellow violets

Just this one little patch of snow on the trail

Once at the lake, still no sunshine. 

Just for comparison, here is what it looked like almost exactly two years ago, when the sun was shining

Undaunted, we continued to walk around the lakeshore

And across the outlet

Until we came to this sign on the east side of the lake

The trail continued uphill away from the lake

The trail left and then reentered the Goat Rocks

After about two miles of going uphill, there was still no sun, and no other views except the lake below

So we stopped for a cold lunch on this log

Then we retraced our steps, coming back down to Packwood Lake

Not only was there still no sun, but it was darn cold

O well, the lake is still beautiful, even under cloudy skies

 Stats:
Round trip: 13 miles
Elevation gain: 1200 feet
Hike to drive ratio: 6h/5h= 1.2