I've been wanting to visit either Upper Lena Lake or Lake of the Angels in the Olympic National Park for some time now. On very short notice, I arranged to make the trip this past weekend. I would have stayed home had I known all of the shenanigans that followed . . .
I brought my bike so that I could ride from a road wash-out a mile or so to the trailhead. Once I arrived I discovered that the tube had blown (shredded is more like it), so I had to walk to the trailhead. No big deal.
Immediately upon starting the trail, I headed uphill. That wouldn't change for the next 4 miles as I gained almost 4000 feet in elevation. It was like a 4 mile/4 hour stairmaster carrying a 50 pound backpack! About halfway up, I encountered a guy heading down and we exchanged notes. I was already a sweaty mess and remarked about what a tough climb this had been. He told me that there were a couple of "headwalls" to get through prior to arriving at Lake of the Angels. Seems "headwall" is a hiker euphemism for "cliff". Going up wasn't the hard part on those headwalls - it was the going down that was scary!
I lost the trail at a couple of places, but really lost maybe only 5 minutes total. The trail wasn't well marked, and with all the stream crossings and alternate campsites/trails, I got on the wrong one a time or two. Again, no big deal.
I slogged my way up the second headwall, after crossing and climbing up a decent snowfield first. Once I got to the Lake of the Angels I was greeted by the resident herd of mountain goats. Those goats have absolutely no fear of human beings, and pretty much view us as walking salt licks. This, combined with a forewarning about their aggressiveness here, and the fact that a hiker was killed by a mountain goat in the Olympic National Park had me a bit nervous.
Those goats followed me around everywhere and kept me up literally all night long. I didn't realize until the next morning that those beggars were really thieves - they took my hat!! I hope that goat has a nasty stomach ache from eating my hat.
Anyways, the location was stunning. I saw an amazing sunset, watched the stars come out and light up the sky. It was so clear there I think I saw every star that is visible to the naked eye. Then I got to watch a pretty sunrise. I started my walk out pretty early, since I didn't want to share my breakfast with the goats (like I almost did with dinner). At the bottom of the first headwall, my left foot slipped, my knee buckled, and I pinwheeled down the slope. To make matters worse, the snowfield that I wrote about earlier was at the bottom of my fall (only about 6 feet or so). Which means I got to slide a bit downhill before coming to rest. I'm super lucky I didn't sprain my knee or ankle on that tumble. There were a couple of others on the way down (like I said, it was steep!) but nothing major.
All in all, I enjoyed Lake of the Angels. It was a beautiful alpine meadow and lake ringed in by mountains. I won't be going back though - those goats made the time there thoroughly unenjoyable. I'll look for another lake and alpine meadow that doesn't have a resident goat population!
Have a great day out there everybody. And sleep well, I know I will!
