Trip Report for Lake Angeles
Where: Olympic National Park
When: Sunday, April 13, 2014
Stats: 7.4 miles round trip – 2,350 foot elevation gain
The hike itself was every bit as challenging as I expected to be, and more. Unlike many of the hikes I do it was reached from a paved parking lot right off of a main road, so there was nothing exciting about getting to the trailhead. Once there, though, things immediately started getting tougher.
The trail was very very well kept, with only one tree fallen across it from the winter. That said, the trail was also almost constantly up hill, and at a moderately difficult grade. It never got so steep, though, that they had to resort to switchbacks.
We made steady progress upward, with plenty of rest breaks, and only ran into trouble near the end. About twenty minutes from the summit we hit ice on the trail, and owing to the steepness this made for trouble. My two friends tried to go on, but since neither of them had good footwear or sticks they had to turn back. They encouraged me to go on, though, and it was worth the difficulty.
Incredibly worth the difficulty, in fact. Right near the top the trail leveled out and the snow got deeper. It was a sunny day, but it was only now that I started getting out from under the trees. When I finally made it to the lake shore I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. Lake Angeles (as you’ll see from the pictures) is nestled into a bowl surrounded by steep slopes and was completely covered in snow. With the bright sun shining down this was actually the warmest part of the trail. The air was thick with the scent of pines and crystal clear. Because I had left my friends behind I didn’t spend as long as I might have at the top, staying only to take some pictures.
When I met back up with them further down I made us all some hot chocolate to share and then we finished our trek. By the time we had gotten back to my apartment it was 9:00 pm, meaning we had been away for over eleven hours, but it was a great day.
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