Packwood Lake — Saturday, Jun. 6, 2015

South Cascades > Goat Rocks

My two friends, 4 dogs and I left for this trip at 7am from Seattle. Good thing we did because there were 10-15 cars at the trailhead when we got there about 10am. The first mile of the trail is a steady incline. If you are in good shape, this won't phase you at all, but my big butt fell behind my friends. Nevertheless, I made it up just fine. I never mind walking alone because I've always got an audiobook locked and loaded that is begging to be listened to. After the initial incline, the trail is level for 2-3 miles, and then after you pass over a ridge, you begin a short descent to the lake. There were several campsites already taken by the time we finished the hike and arrived at the lake, however we still got a pretty decent, although small campsite. It didn't matter because the view was amazing! (see below). I went swimming that day as it was hot. The water was chilly, but the bottom was sandy-ish with small pebbles. No weeds. There were almost no bugs in the evening, and the stars were so bright, they reflected off the glass-like lake. My favorite moment of the entire trip was from about 11PM-1AM, laying in my hammock with my sleeping bag, listening to Herb strum away on his ukulele from a few feet away and gazing at the stars. Why can't every moment of life be that moment? I had made up my mind to sleep outside in my hammock that night since the lack of bugs was magical, but shortly after 1am, the knots holding one end of my hammock up had had enough of my crap for the evening and unceremoniously dumped me on the ground in one loud thump. I slept in my tent. The next day 2 of us decided to take the "road trail" back. I have mixed feelings about this trail. The first mile was up hill, full of loose rock, rough terrain, literally my worst hiking nightmare. However, the next 3 miles were pretty flat and had better views of Rainier. Overall, would hike this trail again!