Remember how good Jeff and I are about misjudging our hikes? (Witness Lena Lake, Mount Rainier, and Annette Lake.) We did it again—but I’ll get to that later.
This weekend’s hike was in Olympic National Park, just south of Port Angeles. There, three connecting trails form a loop that winds up and over mountain ridges for most of its length, affording spectacular views to the north, east, and south. The plan was as follows:
- Saturday: Heart of the Hills to Heather Park (4 miles, steady ascent, ~3500 feet elevation gain)
- Sunday: Heather Park to Lake Angeles along the Klahhane Ridge (~4.5 miles, up and down over the ridge with a net descent to the lake)
- Monday: Lake Angeles back down to Heart of the Hills (~3.5 miles, gently downhill)
Unfortunately I can’t point you at a map, but I had one, and it sure seemed like a good plan. We could have gone around the loop in the other direction, but I figured that it would be better to get the worst over on the first day. That way, the second and third days would be relatively easy.
The catch is that maps don’t tell you everything. Neither do guide books.
Update: This isn’t a trail map, but Google Maps has a pretty good satellite view of the area. The big ridge running east-west is Klahhane ridge. The trail starts at a bend in the road, near what looks like it might be a lake, and extends south in a climb along the big north-south ridge at the west end of Klahhane. The north-south ridge intersects Klahhane at Mount Angeles (the big bump at the west end of Klahhane). The trail goes across Klahhane, down to Lake Angeles, and then northwest back to the trailhead.