[Tom]

Black flies, kamikaze midges, and hungry skeeters in late August. Pack chewing goats, hornets, permits, long approaches, and long drives. What's not to like about the Olympics? Headed up to Upper Lena on Tuesday afternoon with Dayhike Mike and Backpacker Joe. An hour later we were joined by the dynamic duo of Schmidt Altidude and Altibabe despite their leaving several hours later and ferrying a car to the Lake of the Angels trailhead which we would exit on Thursday. The skeeters were hungry that night but respected the deet as we enjoyed great company and conversation. The next morning we headed up to Milk Lake before packing up and heading for Deer Heart Lake where we stopped for lunch. BPJ and Mike decided to take it easy while the Schmidts and I would take a side trip to Scout Lake. In our haste we missed the boot path down to Scout and instead of backtracking we decided to press on to Stone Pond where we assumed BPJ and Mike would meet us. Unfortunately they waited at the junction to Scout for a few hours, fending off the onslaught of bugs while we enjoyed the light milk snow fed waters of Stone Pond while battling more of the same. By the time BPJ and Mike joined us, shadows were falling on Stone Pond and there was little rest for the weary as we felt it prudent to ascend the steep snowfield to St Peter's Gate while the snow was still soft, then down steeply to Lake of the Angels, arriving a little before 7 PM to swarms of kamikaze midges, skeeters, black flies, goats, goats, and more goats. Given how aggressive / numerous the goats were, we decided to sleep with our packs and anything chewable inside the tent. The next morning BPJ was fighting some really bad blisters and Jeremy needed to take care of business in town, so they headed down early while the rest of us enjoyed a daytrip to Hagen Lakes. This worked out great as it provided Jeremy a driver to ferry back a car so Tish could stay. It took us a bit longer to explore the Hagen Lakes area than expected and we got back to the trailhead at 6 PM, 3 hours after the time we told BPJ to anticipate us. We expected to be greeted with some frustration but to our surprise BPJ was waiting with a smile and assortment of chips, fruit, and drinks cooled by a bag of ice that was just about melted. He had even topped off the car with gas. What a guy.

Mike Arriving at Lower Lena Lake

Mike Clearing Trail

The Brothers

Upper Lena Reflections

Upper Lena Lake and Mount Lena

Mike and Tish at Milk Lake

Blue Heron at Upper Lena

Pond Above Upper Lena

Deer Heart Lake and Mount Stone

Scout Lake

Dropping to Stone Pond

Stone Pond Reflections

Stone Pond

Stone Pond Pano

Schmidt Headnets, Lake of the Angels, and Mount Stone

Goats at Lake of the Angels

Goat Kid at Lake off the Angels

Mount Skokomish

Mike and Tish Arriving at Hagen Lakes

Hagen Inlet Pool

Hagen Lake from Inlet Area

Rounding Hagen Lake

Lowest Hagen Lake

Hagen 4775

Leaving Hagen Lakes

Mount Olympus and Mount Hopper from Hopper Ridge

Mt Anderson? from Hopper Ridge

Mt Stone from Hopper Ridge

Zooming Back to Hagen Lakes

Looking Back to Hagen Lake

Lake of the Angels

Looking Back to St Peter's Gate

[Dayhike Mike]

Nice pics, Tom! Thanks for writing the TR. I'll put up more pics in a second.

[Canuck]

We were at the High Divide the same days you did this hike (TR to come sometime tonight), and the bugs were horrendous there as well. I guess the Olympics weren't the place to be for bugs this weekend, eh? I figured they'd be gone by now! Nice trip, you guys!

[Oren]

Mike Clearing Trail

[Backpacker Joe]

Thanks for the trip report and pics Tom. It was great hiking with you and Michael again. And of course getting my butt kicked by the Schmities was fun as well. Thanks for the patience guys!

[ScottM]

Very nice. The bugs should be done pretty soon. I haven't been out in a couple of weeks but I remember being out on Labor Day of last year and had zero bugs.

[ethorson]

Great report and photos! What camera are you using? Do you use a polarizing filter to get the fantastic sky color?

[Tom]

Yep, just an ancient 4 megapixel Canon G3 (with a polarizer for most shots).

[Dane]

Cool I did pretty much the exact same trip just a couple of weeks ago...I meant to head out to Hagen Lake and Elk Basin/Mt. Hopper as well, but the crummy weather (and voracious flying parasites) made me decide to hike to the trailhead once I got to Lake of the Angels. Shortly after heading down from the pass above Stone Ponds the boot path seemed to disappear on me and I ended up bushwacking down to the lake (upper stone pond). It was a fun bushwack, although soaking wet because of the rain. I'm guessing it's not the most efficient route though...what way did you all take? I loved Upper Stone Pond, but it was very fragile territory and I felt guilty just walking through. I did not find any good campsites anywhere around the lake. I settled for the best I could find and had one of the worst night's sleep I've ever had outdoors. I don't suggest camping at the lake. I was not expecting any significant snow at St. Peter's Gate, especially steep snow. I took several measurements just below the gate with my clinometer that averaged out to a 30 degree slope. If I were to do it again I'd atleast want trekking poles, if not an ice ax (I went up early in the morning).

Mossy Roots

Campsite No. 9 at Upper Lena Lake

Talus

Moss

The LOTR shot

Rain? WTF?!

Boulder at Upper Stone Pond

Rain at Upper Stone Pond

St. Peter's Gate from Stone Pond's side

Silhouettes

Hiking up to St. Peter's Gate in the Snow and Fog

Hamma Hamma Valley

Silhouette

St. Peter's Gate from LOA side

[Backpacker Joe]

Wow, you had turbo crummy weather.... And to think only a tarp too. You da man.

[gratenate]

Did similar loop last year about this time of year but went to Hagen Lake from Scout Lake via a gap north of Mt Stone...I don't know if it has a name but don't think its the same route you all are describing. Got lucky and bugs weren't bugging

[Dayhike Mike]

Dane, thanks for the pics and I know what you mean re: the terrain around Upper Stone Pond. I had the same guilty feeling and avoided the moss as much as possible. We all took a pretty direct route when descending to Upper Stone Pond, but if I were to do it again, I'd continue across the grassy bench and descend on the talus just a ways over. It's not worth dropping down through the brushy, soggy stuff just above the lake.

[Backpacker Joe]

[Dayhike Mike]

Pretty sure it's the same gap we were looking at BPJ -- through the PB47. I'd love to hear if they actually went around the north side of Mount Stone, but it looks like a pretty cliffy/steep traverse down to about 4400'. Terrain looked steep but reasonable to traverse from that gap to the Great Stone Arrow. Quite a bit steeper and brushier (with a couple cliff bands to negotiate) if you wanted to drop more directly to the lakes. Overall, I was pleased with the route we took and would probably do it the same way again.

[gratenate]

OK...bear with me...I am trying to get the hang of this photo post thing. The ascent was a piece of cake across a white band of rocks and then up a rockslide drainage. The top cliffed out but we found a small treed ledge that brought us down to the snow field. From there we headed in a SW direction until we reached the gap due west of Mt Stone. Funky Rocks noted while following white band

Rockslide Drainage Ascent

Overlooking Hagen Lake from gap

Looking Back at the Treed Ledge thru which we passed

Resting after crossing snowfield beneath Mt Stone

The treed ledge was not bad because you have trees on the downhill side of you. Probably the most difficult parts of the route were the large boulder field after the snow crossing (huge rocks) and then the long side hill traverse to the gap south of Hagen Lake.