Jim has been wanting to do a 3-day traverse from Upper Lena Lake to Lake of the Angles in the Olympic Mountains for several years now. We took advantage of a nice 3-day weather window to do the hike. With a promise of no bushwhacking and no rain, Andrew signed on to join us.
We took the morning Bremerton ferry from Seattle, stopped at Starbucks, and finally arrived the Lena Lake trailhead just before 11am. The guys dropped me off so I could start up the trail and then they drove on to Putvin Trailhead to drop a bike. By the time they returned to the Lena Lake Trailhead, it was almost noon.
Though the guys were a full hour behind me, we reached Upper Lena Lake at the same time. (5 hours for me and 4 hours for the guys)
Mt Bretherton stood proudly above the lake. We had hoped to climb it on this trip but the timing just wasn’t right. Jim will definitely be back. Not sure I want to repeat the climb to Upper Lena Lake but give me a few weeks to forget the suffering and I will probably sign up for another trip.
Andrew setup in a small site right on the lake shore. It was such an amazing site, he took extra time to verify it was a valid site. Jim and I setup in the last site in the meadow at the end of the lake.
After a dip in the lake, Jim and I headed over to Andrew’s site for dinner on the lake. Andrew had his own private beach right in camp.
We hiked back to our site just before dark. The evening light lite up Mt Bretherton.
The next day started with a little bushwhacking as we climbed to the high meadows. The ripe huckleberries made the climb completely tolerable. Before long we were above tree line.
We spent the next several hours strolling through the high meadows. There was a trail most of the way which lets you know how many people actually do this traverse.
There were some mountain views along the way but we were unsure what they were. They were pretty!
Just after a lunch break, we crossed over a ridge and got our first look at Saint Peters Gate.
We soon lost the trail which was fine by us. We all wanted to take the upper ramp anyway. The colors were beautiful and it looked to have the best snow coverage.
Just before Saint Peters Gate, we had to drop down to the snow field below. The trail was on the lower ramp. If we had know what we were going to face to get down to the snow, we would have taken the lower ramp.
Once on the snow, it was easy travel until we hit the steep, icy upper snow. I had crampons in my pack. Not sure why I didn’t stop to put them on.
After a scary, loose dirt climb, we reached Saint Peters Gate. It was a small notch in the ridge with steepness on both sides. It was at this point that the unforecasted fog rolled in. The fog made the views a little eerie.
We could still see The Brothers behind us but not for long.
We drop a couple hundred feet before we found a climber’s path leading up Mt Stone. Here we left our big packs behind. We followed the climbers path around the steep ridge and up through the scree.
When the climber’s went left across the scree, we discussed just scrambling up the gullies on the face. We all agreed it was worth a look.
Andrew is as bad as Jim and I are. He felt very comfortable just heading into the unknown.
The three of us worked very well together. Constantly looking for routes we were willing to scramble. Seemed like we all had about the same tolerance level. There were several times during the accent that we all agreed “we are not going back down what we had just come up”.
When we finally reach the top of the wall, we identified the summit horn across a basin of snow.
At the ridge just below the summit horn, we found the climber’s path. We would definitely be taking that down.
At the base of the summit horn, we all quickly scrambled to the summit.
We were all elated to have a view in at least one direction. The rest was all fog. Jim has climbed Mt Stone three times now. All three with virtually no visibility.
The fog does create some amazing photo opportunities.
We didn’t stay on the summit long before heading down. We took our time downclimbing the Class 3 slot. Thankfully, it had no exposed.
Once we were back on the climber’s path, we made good time getting back to our packs. As we headed down to Lake of the Angels, it actually started to rain. What the heck? Andrew took this opportunity to remind me that he was promised there would be no bushwhacking and no rain. Welcome to Washington!
The rain stopped as quick as it started but we were still in the fog. After about 10 minutes, we realized we were descending the wrong way. Whoops! Thankfully we only had to climb up a few feet as we traversed to the correct down route.
Before long, Lake of the Angels appeared. It was actually below the cloud layer.
When we reached the lake, we were greeted by an icy wind. We quickly picked campsites and setup camp preparing for a windy, cold night. We all decided to eat dinner in our tents so we said good night to Andrew and jumped in the tent.
Just before bedtime, I got out of the tent for one final pee and noticed the wind had stopped and the fog had settled on the lake but the sky was getting thinner. By the middle of the night, the fog had cleared and the stars were out.
We woke to a beautiful morning.
As Jim was walking around looking for our trail out, he noticed a sign with campsites. We were totally camped in a no camping zone. Dang! We had come down from Saint Peters Gate so we never walked by the sign.
One of my favorite things about doing a traverse is you never have the same view twice. As we descended the trail this morning, we were treated to views of Mt Adams.
Then we passed through the basin with the Pond of the False Prophet.
The Pond of the False Prophet was well named. From here, the trail dropped sharply. Saying it was steep, doesn’t do it justice. Not often do you come across a permanent handline on a trail. The exposure here was more than we had on our climb of Mt Stone.
When we had a little over a mile of trail left, Andrew took the car keys and headed off. Jim and I arrived the trailhead to find Andrew’s pack and the bike gone. It is so nice to arrive the trailhead and have the car shuttle already underway.
We had a great trip despite the fog. Jim and I have only had one trip this summer that didn’t have cold, wet fog. We are kind of scared to go out again.