Not Every Outdoor Experience Goes Well

Sometimes you are just better off staying home. OK, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it took me a while to digest the disappointment. Almost nothing, not even the weather cooperated with my attempt to get to the top of Mt. Ellinor.

Yes, that is the mountain that has received a lot of bad press over the last month. A group of three were injured in late May during a glissade (sliding down a mountain on your butt). A week later, a 33 year old woman from Centralia slipped, fell and began an uncontrolled slide down the “chute”.

With all the attention the mountain had been receiving lately, it was still hard to tell if one could hike to the top and back without an ice ax. Many hikers climb Mount St. Helens just for the fun of glissading down the shoot adjacent to Monitor Ridge. That didn’t mean you had to donate your butt to the mountain, you also have a choice to ease your way down the andisite boulders.

The question I couldn’t answer about Mt. Ellinor was if there an option to come back down the mountain without an ice ax and the ability to self arrest (stop)? There was almost no information available on the internet. It was clearly one of those times I would have to learn in person. So with a forecast of breaking clouds in the afternoon, I headed for the mountain in the southeast Olympic Range with the expectation of have a rough, physical day. I went without family members expecting to join others along the way.

The lower trail is very handsome and snow free.

To get there, drive to Hoodsport and take SR119 8 miles passed Lake Cushman to Forest Road 24 and turn right. The way to Mt. Ellinor is well marked. Take a left on FS 2419 and drive as far as you dare. I would suggest going only as far as the lower trailhead. The road deteriorates to the point where only those with ice in the veins want to continue. As it was, I drove as far as I could, turned my car to face down hill and hiked to the upper trailhead when a large part of the road separated into a canyon below. In hindsight, it was the one good choice I made this day.

A well used path was blazed in the snow until I got to the base of the "chute".

All was going well until I reached about 5,000 feet. The snow became very deep and while going uphill was fairly easy, the downhill trip among the trees was going to be a challenge. And the forecast? Those clearing skies that were going to give me an amazing early evening view sitting along side mountain goats never came. At 5,100 feet, I scoped the landscape with my 30 meter visibility looking for a route that wouldn’t require the use of an ice ax.

The view up Mt. Ellinor at the base of the "chute".

It wasn’t worth it. I turned around and completed the one good choice of the day. Since I hiked to the upper trailhead, I was going to be able to complete a loop of about six miles down to the lower trailhead and then back up the road to my car. The last part of the loop went through some wonderful old growth timber, but most of the setting featured clear cuts and fire scars with a mostly cloudy, shrouded view of the Hood Inlet and the eastern slopes of the Olympics.

So here is the information that I really needed. There is a summit trail around the south side of the mountain that was still buried under snow. It is for experienced hikers (read, fearless of heights) even during the best of weather conditions. During the winter, climbers head straight up the chute, an avalanche path on the east face of the peak. It is a route reserved for those with basic winter mountaineering skills and the aforementioned ice ax and the ability to self arrest.

For me, Mt. Ellinor will wait for another day either later in the summer or with an ice ax at my side.

The Lena Lake Experience

Historically, I have not been a fan of the Olympics. It is true that I took my family there in 2006 and spent three days exploring the “exterior” of the peninsula. We visited Hurricane Ridge, Sol Duc Falls and the Hoe Rain Forest, but the experience of looking out over the range never intrigued me to the point of saying “I have to go out there”.

Bring on the winter of 07-08 and the massive snows of which I have had a love/hate relationship and the desperation to find quality, early season, yet snow-free trails. For this purpose, I should mention that I follow a couple of websites, most notably Washington Trails Association and to a lesser extent, Northwest Hiker where participants post information and photos about the hikes that they have taken. Still being a newbie to Washington, I read with great interest and have map for assistance in finding those hidden spots close to Lewis County.


Late last week, I noticed a name that kept coming up. I read the “hike reports” and checked the map. It was going to be right on the edge of the 2 hour drive from the local area. I searched trip reports from years passed looking for photos. Not too impressive, but what choice did I have. The boys and I got up early, grabbed a friend and headed towards Lena Lake.

Getting to Lena Lake means driving north to Olympia and then taking Highway 101 by Shelton and Hoodsport. 14.2 miles north of Hoodsport, take a left on Forest Road #25 and drive for about 7.5 miles. It is a well used trailhead and marked visibly from Highway 101. You will need a Northwest Forest Pass to park at the trailhead.


The trail to the lake climbs about 1000 feet in the first 2 miles, but it is really a rather moderate hike. The last mile rises a net elevation of 300 feet as you reach the Lena Lake Basin. The trail was in excellent condition for an early season hike until you reach the northern end of the lake. From there, the elements still had the upper hand with downed trees and on this weekend, flooding.

A group of boy scouts from Issaquah reported that the water rose enough to have them move uphill from the lakeshore on Saturday night. When they got up the next morning, their former tent site was completely under water.

Just in the two hours we were there, the water level rose about 6 inches and covered the trail on the north side of the lake near the East Fork of Lena Creek where you can access the falls.

In this photo, salal growing at the base of a cedar is covered by the rising water level. I would say several to six feet based on locations of trees.


I looked all over the web and there was nary a reference to the falls! I can see where most of the day hikers stopped at the viewpoint of the lake on the southwest bluff, but I urge visitors to continue on to at least the East Fork of Lena Creek's confluence into the lake itself. What a great spot to end a great hike on a day when the water was roaring with snow melt.

Temperatures climbed rapidly and snows melted quickly in the higher elevations. Water in the lake was rising fast and covered the trail. The upper bridge crossing at Lena Creek resulted in wet shoes and boots just to access the bridge. The increased flow meant something very special at the confluence of the East Fork Lena Creek and the lake. At that location, the creek drops about 90 feet and empties into the lake. Next time I go back, it will probably be so mundane with less water flow!



The aforementioned photos that I had observed of Lena Lake were few and far between. More importantly, they didn’t do the lake justice. The lake and the basin is stunning. As we crossed a trail junction to Upper Lena Lake or stopped well short of “The Brothers”, it was all my boys could do to keep me from going farther. In my mind I couldn’t help but say to myself, “I’ll be back“!