Upper Lena: Summer 2004

In the summer of 2004, when Monica was just a year old, Anton and I took our first backpacking trip together since becoming parents. We chose to go to Upper Lena lake, another classic hike of the east Olympics. About 7 1/2 miles from start to finish, the first 3 miles are a fairly easy "highway" up to Lena Lake. Little did we know that 5 years later we would hike to this lake again with Monica!
http://partyintukwila.blogspot.com/2009/07/lower-lena-lake-monicas-first.html
But back to 2004... we pressed on towards the Upper Lena lake trail. The change between the two trails was significant. We now found ourselves on a narrower, less maintained trail that was steep and hard to navigate at times. We had contemplated continuing on to Milk lake, but decided that U.L. lake was plenty to handle in one day. Upon arrival, we were greeted with the beautiful landscape of this alpine lake. There were even a few pockets of snow leftover. The weather was clear and we cooked our dinner and fell asleep under the stars. But when we woke in the morning the weather had changed and it was pouring with rain! Even worse, water had soaked the bottom of our tent (can't remember now why it didn't stay dry) and I accidentally dropped our one (!) roll of toilet paper in the water. Luckily we only planned to be out one night. Thanks to the weather we ate and packed up quickly before heading down. The decent was, well, miserable. I was thrilled to finally reach the car where we could have dry clothes and warm air available at the turn of a key. But it was still well worth it to see Upper Lena.