Lake of the Angels, December 14

[jointhedance]

With such delightfully perfect weather prevailing, it was worth the drive from Portland up Hood Canal and then up the Hamma Hamma. We found the road washed out at mile 9, three miles short of the trailhead to Lake of the Angels.

The Putvin Trail is signed, starting at el. 2120'. There is a short scramble at a headwall, up where the views start to open.

There is a swath of flattened forest here. It might look like avalanche damage, but there is no slope above, rather undisturbed forest. It could be from a weather phenomenon, a microburst. There is another such swath up the Dosewallips, on both sides of the canyon.

Our very steep trail disappeared in the snow-and-ice covered marshy basin below the lake. We had to follow boot tracks in the snow on a bushwhack above and around the impassable watery meadow. We gained the lake, at 4,900', frozen in this cirque too deep to have sunlight at any time of day in winter, after 3 hours of trail and off-trail. I took it for granted we would gain the trail in the marsh on the return. Ha! as it happened, that trail disappeared at the upper end of that marsh, and we had slowly to retrace that roundabout off-trail bypass again in reverse. This corner of the Olympics will remain on the list to do on a day with a later sunset time, with no fog, as surrounding ridges, with distant views, and Mt. Skokomish and Mt. Stone are accessible from here.


http://youtu.be/vwnnIFCES_4

[raven]

An impressive day hike -- given the short days this time of year -- with the route finding difficulties you report, the terrain and the road walk. Your description does not do the effort justice. The lack of snow made the trip possible this time of year, while in a normal year avalanche danger would have to be considered.

Please fill us in on the logistics. With the drive to the trailhead and the long day I assume you had an overnight stay or two.

I backpacked up there in June, 10 or so years ago. (The road was not washed out then.) The experience and scenery were so totally different from yours that I had to check the map to be certain it was the same Lake of the Angels. My hike was sunny on day 1, sodden on the morning of day 2.

I suspect that everywhere you had difficulties, I was on snow. The snow pack started about the top of the headwall, 2-300 feet above the short stretch of 3 point climbing on the trail. I was able to walk over the marshy areas you found without knowing they were there; I did not even consider looking for a trail; and went straight up the last steep slope on snow to the cirque above. The lake was so buried I could only guess at its location. Slides had run down a set of chutes across the cirque from my tent site, so almost every aspect of the scenery on top seemed quite different from your pictures. Not spending the night up there would have been painful, for the place was gorgeous with almost all signs of mankind's efforts buried.

Two good looking late 20s to 30-ish women were nervously rushing down as I crested the top of that last steep snow slope, pursued by a large male mountain goat respectfully staying 10 feet behind them -- but intent on staying with them. I've been wondering about that story since. Also made me wonder about the origin of tales of the god Pan. Never saw the goat again. Nor the women.

My main difficulty on that hike was dehydration during the hot climb to and up the headwall. I passed the only water en route below the headwall without refilling my partly empty water bottle. I expected other opportunities, given the snow above. Not wise. A cautionary comment, for late spring and summer hikers.

[jointhedance]

Raven, thanks for the affirmation and interest. This was our day-hike. Sara had a blast, and it was her first time hiking in snow. The last time I was up there, was an overnighter in about 1986, probably in August. It was socked it, I remember, so the yen to go back on a sunny day. Do trails get longer and steeper over decades? The sign at the trailhead states "Lake of the Angels 2 miles"; which can't be true. Olympic Mountains Trail Guide states 3 miles. And it took us three hours. The road is washed out at mile 9, so we added 3 miles each way of road-walking. When you were there in June, sun would have been so intense and hot on that ascent. For me, temps in the 40's is nice for a steep ascent, but up in the Lake of the Angels cirque, it was in shade, it was breezy and in the 20's. My fingers about stopped working it was so cold. It took drinking up warm glögg and putting on alpine ski gloves for my fingers to come back to life. Funny to hear from you about the goat! Sign at the trailhead explicitly warned of "habituated goats" at the lake, and that one assertive mountain goat was there shadowing us in 1986! How long can goats live? Could there be a goat-boss dynasty? We saw no goat chief this time.

[raven]

I read the distance as over 3 miles straight line, probably over 4 along the trail. The lake is only a 3350 foot climb - my memory was more, but I explored the ridgeline above. The angle of that climb varies considerably, so it feels like more. I figure you did 14 to 15 miles and 3700' on a very short day. A degree and a half further north makes a noticeable difference in the hours of useful light.

Did you finish in the dark? If so, where did you light the torches?

[jointhedance]

I read the distance as over 3 miles straight line, probably over 4 along the trail. The lake is only a 3350 foot climb - my memory was more, but I explored the ridgeline above. The angle of that climb varies considerably, so it feels like more. I figure you did 14 to 15 miles and 3700' on a very short day. A degree and a half further north makes a noticeable difference in the hours of useful light.

Did you finish in the dark? If so, where did you light the torches?

yeh, it sure seemed like 4 miles. Pretty sure it was about 10:30 we parked at the washout, got to the lake around 2:30, started back maybe 3:00, bumbled around in that meadow following, losing trail, backtracking, bushwhacking. I was happy to shimmy down that headwall before it got any darker! torches on below that headwall. We got back to the road at dark, legged it down the road in the deepening darkness and under the brightening stars. I think those were the longest 3 road miles I've hiked yet. The stars were spectacular, but I was mighty pre-occupied with the potato chips and eggnog waiting for us in my rig! Then we stopped at Trader Joe's to get more calories