Packwood Lake — Friday, Aug. 30, 2002

South Cascades > Goat Rocks

No Bugs!!! NO BUGS!!! This may have been my first trip this summer without bugs! My Mountaineer group headed to Packwood Lake. This is a 9 miles very easy hike to a beautiful lake. The road to the trail is paved all the way and it dead-ends at the trail head. It can't get easier than that. From the parking area, you have a view of Mt. Rainier. At 10:30, the parking lot had only a few cars. I was expecting a huge crowd. I forgot this was Labor Day weekend when I scheduled this hike for the Go-Guide. So I was plesantly surprised. This trail is mostly under a nice forrest cover with peek-a-boo views of Rainier. The trail is dusty but clear or any debris. We made it to the lake in 1 1/2 hours for the faster group and 1 hour 45 minutes for the wanderers. As you are getting close to the lake you see this massive emerald-colored lake through the trees. The color of this lake is awesome! The lake sits under Johnson Peak. A few of us braved the cold water and took a lunch time swim. It was refreshing! We met up with another small group at the lake, two mountain bikers and 1 motorcyclist. Other than that...no body. I keep hearing about how popular this lake is and this was my second trip on a holiday weekend with only a few hikers to be found. I hope I never run into the rumored crowds. After lunch we made the return trip on the ATV road. We past a small group of backpackers heading to the lake and no one else. The town of Packwood was having some huge festival and traffic was slow getting out of Packwood. Our group decided to drive to Eatonville for dinner and a break from the long drive home to Tacoma. We stopped at ""Between the Bread"" restaurant and had a delicious dinner and lovely conversation. A very good day. I'll have to backpack it here one day.