Brothers mountain, WA July 23-25

I got lucky and ended up with 3 days off during the middle of the week. I work nights but I tried to make the best of it and got to the trail head at 9 PM. This was my first hiking experience alone at night and I found I would much rather sleep at night than hike. That said I set up camp, after only 2 hours on the trail, just past Lena lake and soon after I got under my quilt it started to rain. I woke up early and started to make my way towards Brothers mountain in light intermittent rain.

The weather was poor on the mountain with high winds, rain, and dense clouds.

I lost the main route to the summit because I missed a blaze and the clouds blocked the view of the saddle and other landmarks completely but I still continued on. Finally, since I was alone, half lost and wet, I made the smart decision to turn around and head back. after only 30 min into my decent the weather started to open up and I saw my missed blaze.

Then it really opened up and I was finally able to look around and see just how close I came to the top before I turned around.

With the weather getting nicer by the minute the wildlife started to check things out.

On my second night I stayed at the brothers mountain base camp on lena creek fork.

Later that evening a familiar face visited my camp.

The next day, on my way out, I saw some packs that really made me appreciate my ultra light load.