I was looking for a good first overnighter of the season, Packwood Lake was a perfect fit. The road to the trailhead was clear, the trail itself was in good condition and free of obstacles, the elevation gain was modest enough to make carrying an overnight pack less miserable than it could be.
The trail is pretty, mostly winding along with gentle rolling hills under cover of forest. If you listen while you hike, you'll likely hear the call of many small birds and mammals (and maybe some big birds, too), as well as the gurgling of many small streams.
Arriving at the lake, you can explore around the old ranger station and the dam, I kept along the trail by the lake another 2 miles to the end of the established campsites dotting the shore. For a quiet weekend, every site had at least one occupant but was relatively quiet. Beautiful views of Rainier over the lake from my campsite, and I fell asleep to the sound of the nearby stream.
There were some bugs around, but they didn't seem to be biting. The weather looked warmer than it actually was- I was cozy in my tent, but got a bit cold sitting in the hammock and making my breakfast in the morning. Slightly better planning on my part would have made the outing a bit more comfortable, but it was more of an inconvenience than a problem.
People did a good job of cleaning up after themselves this weekend on the trail itself, though I ended up picking up a fair bit of trash at the trailhead.
One thing to note, the trailhead gets quite busy between overnight hikers and day use. Please be considerate and park your vehicle relatively close to one another. When I arrived at the trailhead mid-day there were quite a few spaces where 3/4 of a car could fit and only one spot on the end left that wasn't dedicated for stock trailers. There's no need to leave a 6 foot gap between vehicles.
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