Lower Lena Lake

I had very a good, albeit wet and cold hike. I started my hike about about 10:30 on Friday morning and my car was the only car at the trail head. You never seen that in the summer. Lena is a nightmare zoo in the summer so I never go there in the summer. Lena is best on a rainy winter weekday.

As I got near the lake I smelled campfire smoke and this really surprised me since there were no cars at the trail head! Soon a group of two men passed me, they were headed downhill. I asked them if they had someone to pick them up since there were no cars at the trail head and they said they did. But they really did not seem like they wanted to talk much. They did however ask me if there was snow at the trail head. Then a minute later a younger man with a rifle passed me and he was a little more talkative. He said they camped for 4 nights and he had forgotten to pack a tarp so they had a cold wet time.

I walked up to the big rock and looked at the view for a few minutes and then I kept hiking. I still had lots of energy at that point and I was hoping to find the hunters(?) left over fire. I walked all the way to the other side of the lake without seeing the fire and just as I was deciding to head up the Brothers trail I saw the coals at the last campsite on the lake. So I stopped and took my lunch there. I was able to quickly restart the fire with the coals. I only used scraps that were on the ground.

Lunch would have been a rather miserable cold affair if not for that nice little fire. I brewed two cups of water for tea over the fire at ate my lunch there with a nice view of snow covered Lena Lake. Someone had left behind several full cans of food and very recently. Probably the same folks who left me the wonderful coals. I did my part and packed all the food out, it was a rather heavy load but it was all downhill and my daypack has a frame, so it was all good. I figured getting that free food would help make up for the $49 worth of gas that I had to put into my Jeep before the start of my hike.

When I was done with my hike I found a ticket on my Jeep. I had the proper parking pass on my dash but the ranger must have been looking for the giant yellow NW forest pass hang tag. I have a much better pass than that. I have an Interagency Pass and it was displayed on my dash.

Maybe the ranger who wrote me a ticket is the same one who mistook my neighbor's raspberry plant for a marijuana plant?

I noticed a lack of conocephalum at Lena Lake, I think that was due to the substrate being rock rather than soil. I noticed what I think is the robust form of Rytidiadelphus moss starting at 1,000 feet. I saw one thalloid liverwort near the lake that I could not ID and it was too small to ethically sample. The only conocephalum I saw was near the lake.

Publicado el febrero 26, 2012 10:16 TARDE por mossy