Lake of the Angels, Upper Lena Lake & Scout Lake — Friday, Jul. 31, 2020

Be aware if you attempt the LOTA-Lena traverse that you'll need excellent route finding skills, comfort with off-trail and bushwhacking, root scrambling, etc... and gear - including possibly ice ax, helmet and crampons if the far side of St. Peter's Gate is icy. My partner is an expert navigator and it was his 2nd time doing the traverse; I would not have attempted this solo or with most other people I know.

Day 1 - mid-morning start up to LOTA. We were warned about the hornet's nest and the party just before us got stung. There's a social trail being beaten out around it, and we took that. We had full packs, so we took it slow, ate a ton of blueberries and huckleberries, and reached the lake in 3hrs, 45min. (3.6mi, 3400ft) It was breezy, which cut down on the bugs, and we were able to take a good swim. In the evening, we scrambled above the lake to the west to check out the route for Mt. Skokomish. 1mi RT, 800ft). We reached a pass that looks down over a blue tarn and Mt. Cruiser to the southwest, and Skokomish to the northwest. A faint side-hill trail on a scree slope leads up toward Mt. Skokomish. Night was falling. Live to climb another day.

Day 2 - We started on the traverse around 9am and reached St. Peter's Gate in about an hour. Climb close to other members of your party here. There are boulders just waiting to roll. I wore a helmet here. At the top we put on microspikes and got out our ice axes, but they really weren't necessary and we even glissaded a little bit. Below the snow field is a sketchy scree slope with giant boulders. We climbed down one at a time to avoid getting brained. It was nasty. After that, some grippy rock scrambling and a faint trail down to a gully filled with snow and a creek running under it. We went around the snow on the low end and scrambled up some solid rocks, over a little more snow and into a field of flowers. From afar this looks easy, but you are bushwhacking up to your chest in wildflowers. My partner found a game trail and we followed that a ways, then used GPS to find the least forested bushwhack to the ridgeline that put us back on a trail. We missed our turnoff and ended up halfway down to Scout Lake, so figured we'd pay that lake a visit. My personal opinion: a lot of bang (think knees, shins, ankles, elbows) for very little buck (pretty, large, forested lake, no real beach or rocks to sit on). It was a bushwhack. We had a fun root scramble, airy in places, back up to the trail. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and tweaked my knee, so I was a grumpy mess by the time we reached Dearheart Lake, which has 2 pretty campsites and no people. We set up camp at 4pm and soaked our feet, while our Upper Lena permit went unused. Did 3 miles and 1700ft up in 7hrs.

Day 3 - We left Dearheart Lake by 9 and did the 2 miles to Upper Lena in an hour. I love Upper Lena Lake, so we napped and read and ate and waited for it to warm up enough to swim. Ran into a ranger up there and some folx fishing. It only really got warm enough to wade though. We left around 1pm and were down by 5. We found salmonberries and red huckleberries, and some thimbleberries and blueberries that will be ripe in a few days. Millions of wildflowers on the way down to Lena Creek. 9mi, down 4800ft, up 675.