Lilliwaup, Wash.–

Lena Lake happened to be a beautiful place to go early in the season. Fortunately, it did not live up to its Animal House reputation. I was a little worried about the rain as I looked at the forecast. But armed with a blue tarp made by a company called Outdoor Products, Robbie and I kept the light afternoon showers off and then they were over.

There were a couple of other sites with people in them. Where was everybody else? Did we not get the memo about the vendor at the Freemont Farmer’s Market unloading his best free-range, shade grown chickens?

Like many hikes in the Olympics we were surrounded by big trees–the ones that make you stop and scratch your head. These are still plants, right? Like entire hillsides, and valleys, and mountains, and mountain ranges filled with giant plants. And then underneath the giant plants are all these mosses and lichens that look like toupees for rocks. The attention to detail is too much. Robbie started telling me about how high definition real life is, and that’s when I knew we were on a good hike.

At night we sat around camp talking about whatever normal things guys talk about.

In the morning we packed up, enjoyed another bottle of iodine water. And consoled ourselves upon our return to the car by listening to some Led Zeppelin.



