Lena Lake Backpacking Adventure

What is super fun about Ben is that I can say, "Hey! Wanna go on a backpacking trip tomorrow to Lena Lake?" and he will say, "Yes!"

Getting out the door ended up being a little bit more stressful than planned, but the first trip of the year usually involves working out the kinks. We needed to restring the tent Ben was going to use and that ended up being less fun than it sounds. My Lifestraw water bottle would not work (good thing I tested all the filters before we left!) and I bought a very large bag of dark chocolate M&Ms when what we needed was a very large bag of caramel M&Ms. We did manage to get everything sorted and found ourselves at the trailhead at 9am. 

The trail is 3.5 miles with a significant number of switchbacks but not overly difficult. Ben is very much faster than me (though I am considering having him carry the bear cannister next time to see if that slows him down) but as he took the opportunity to munch on huckleberries frequently I was able to keep up. When we got to the top we were both ready for bug repellant and a snack. 

Unsurprisingly, Lena Lake is a lake. Ben was almost literally kicking himself for not bringing his swim gear so he could get in the lake. Unfortunately, the minerals that help make the lake a lovely blue color were painful on the eyes so he'd have to swim with his eyes closed. He spent hours debating whether or not to just jump in with his clothes and call it good.

Eventually he decided to take the leap...er, um...walk into the water. The very cold, mountain lake water.

After he committed to the cold water, he was off and swimming. Admittedly, his clothes were less fun to swim in than his jammers, but he enjoyed the experience and has now decided to bring his jammers, goggles, and swim cap on all backpacking trips that are lake-adjacent.

Just wanted to include a picture of where we got our water refills on this trip. Not a bad spot.

The next morning we packed up and headed back down the mountain. Don't we look super well-rested? Kidding. What we look like is two people who did not bring enough bug spray. But we decided the trip was a success. And we have some post-trip takeaway lessons to apply to our trip next week.

And, of course, the obligatory stop in Hoodsport for ice cream.

Summer Week 9 (Lena Lake, North Cascades National Park, Lake St Clair)

Sunday

Game night was a little intense in our house this week. Our first time playing Throw, Throw Burrito ended with a Burrito Duel between Mom and Jason. It was a close game that ended with Mom winning by throwing her squishy burrito at Jason's feet before he realized what was going on.

Then we introduced Mom and Rachel to Poetry for Neaderthals which ended with Michael hitting Jason with the "No!" stick because Michael didn't like the poem Jason made with some of the winning words.

Definitely two good purchases.

Monday

I finally got to one my bucket list hikes: Lena Lake. I ditched the kids and went with my friend. We got up and left early - so much easier without the whole crew. 

It was so lovely and there's a campground that is making me reconsider my requirement that all camping comes with a bathroom.

Tuesday

Packed and ready to go on our fourth camping trip. Look at the excitement of this face. He's a teenager so you have to look deep to find the excitement.

Now look deeper still.

Deeper.

Deeper.

Never mind. It's probably not really there.

This trip was a drive. About 3.5 hours. After which I was so blurry that I thought this was real snow. In August. When it had been 100 degrees the week before. 

After a late start and a long drive, we got all situated and dinner started.

Jason helped pass the time by telling the boys about a new sci-fi show he found on YouTube.

With the fire ready to cook food, Jason started working on dinner. I mentioned to Isaac that I have pics of Jason's bum from all our camping trips when he cooks, so Isaac jumped up to highlight the important part of this picture.

We picked this campground because it was close to the river (Skagit). Ben, Isaac, and I skipped out on cleaning up dinner went to go check it out on our first evening.

Then it was time to see if the ancient emergency light sticks in the car work.

Spoilers: they work. 

Wednesday

I was surrounded by sleepy heads, so I went on a hike while everyone else worked on waking up. The rest of the campground must have been on the same schedule as Jason and the boys because I only saw one other person.

After my hike and breakfast, we piled into the car and down highway 20 to see Gorge Lake. 

I used to think it was cheating a little to digitally alter pictures, but I have to admit that this picture doesn't do the color of this lake justice.

A few pictures later and we went on to Diablo Lake. Gorgeous.

Gorgeous. A park ranger gave me the tip that we should stick to on particular arm of the lake that usually remained calm while the main part of the lake would be too choppy for our inflatable kayaks. The location was perfect and the kayaking was so much fun.

Also a great area for Isaac to splash around in the frigid waters. 

We all took turns. We even put Isaac in a kayak and had Jason tow him around a little bit.

When we'd had our fill of sunshine (more than our fill in one case) and were pretty sure that Michael had burned the top of his feet (luckily he didn't), we packed up the kayaks and drove over to the stunning, but windy, Diablo Lake Overlook.

Afterwards we had to take a little drive to find firewood (that's been a thing this year, thanks Covid!) and then back to camp for dinner and another light show.

And once AGAIN, night two of our camping trip it RAINED. That pretty much killed my plans for an early morning hike. The fact that it CONTINUED to rain killed my plans for a mid-morning hike. Josh, Ben and I did walk to the visitors center to get some souvenirs and have a ranger tell us that the forecast called for rain all day. 

Sigh.

So we did the River Trail and went back to help take down camp.

It was a good thing we did because check-out time was 12:00p and we pulled out of the campsite at 11:58a. 

And back on the road. 

Saturday

Ben and I spent the afternoon with some friends kayaking at Lake St Clair. It's nearby but we'd never been before. The sun came out to play after spending the morning hiding and we had a lovely time exploring. Well, I had a lovely time and Ben enjoyed being dragged behind me. That was a good arm workout!