Upper Lena Lake / Mt. Bretherton,  Olympic National Park,  Jul 7, 2008 - Jul 9, 2008     page 3 / 27

We pressed on, moving steadily up the hill. By the time we reached 3800 feet, I was beginning to tire. I've found over the past few years that if I try to climb much more than 3000 feet in a day with a full pack, I regret it later. If I limit my climbs to less than 3000 feet, I tend to recover better for the following day. Fortunately, the boys set a good pace up the hill. We climbed about 3900 feet from the parking lot to Upper Lena lake that day, reaching Upper Lena around 4:30 PM. And I still felt pretty good despite the workout!

The sun shined during our hike that day, though we were in the shaded forest much of that time. We arrived at Upper Lena to discover some of the surrounding hills were obscured by clouds. Hopefully, the clouds would not stick around long.

As expected, we found the lake mostly covered by snow and ice. We found several campsites melted out, however, and quickly chose one for ourselves.

Once we stopped hiking, with the clouds overhead, and a breeze across the lake, we cooled down quickly. We donned our warm clothing and made some dinner. That consisted of a couple of Mountain House freeze-dried meals and some instant soup. While we prepared the food, we spotted four bear high in the meadows of Mt. Lena. They animals quite a distance from us, but we could tell that one was certainly a cub. They foraged throughout the evening.

Later that evening, the clouds broke and the sky cleared. The light breeze continued, and with it a fog passed over the lake.

Kevin set up a tarp over his sleeping bag. This would protect him from excessive dew from the lake fog. Tom and I unpacked our sleeping bags, and placed them into our respective "bivy" sacks.