We were looking for a hike in the eastern Olympic Mountains today, we chose the Lena Lake Trail (a 6 mile round trip) and then to continue along the Valley of the Silent Men (the Brothers Trail) toward the Brothers Base Camp (for a 13.4 mile round trip). We didn't make it all the way to the Brothers Base Camp, as we had a late start and didn't reach it by our turn around time. We hiked about 9 -10 miles with about 2500 ft elevation gain. The trailhead is 8 miles up the Hamma Hamma road off of Hwy 101. The trail begins at 650 ft, and quickly starts climbing up a series of switch backs.
The trail climbs about 1000 ft in 1.9 miles to reach the 1st bridge which crosses over an old dry creek bed, Lena Creek travels underground here.
The second bridge is 0.7 miles further up the trail with only 200 ft of elevation gain. Here you can watch a creek tumble down the hillside.
Another 100 ft of elevation gain over 0.4 miles (3 miles from the trailhead), you reach a large rocky ledge overlooking the southern end of Lena Lake 100 ft below.
After enjoying the view, we continued on to the north end of Lena Lake and crossed Lena Creek. It's worth stopping half way across the log bridge to enjoy the views:
To the north, Lena Creek comes tumbling down over the rocks, and to the south, watch Lena Creek as it enters Lena Lake.
The trail to the Brothers begins 3.6 miles from the Lena Lake trailhead, at the northeast end of Lena Lake. This trail travels through the forest, crossing the East Fork of Lena Creek 5 times as it travels 3 miles and climbs 1400 ft to the Brothers Base Camp. At one of the crossings, we could just make out a small waterfall behind some boulders.
There were many downed trees along the trail this winter, one fallen tree had taken off the hand rail at this log crossing. At a couple of places, the trail had been washed out and new routes had been made off trail. We did hike over snow in some places, but didn't need to use our snowshoes.
We would have to look through the woods and around some fallen trees to see some of the beautiful cascades.
We were going to stop for lunch at one spot along the trail with beautiful mossy covered boulders, but the smell of fresh skunk discharge encouraged us to hike further up the trail away from the smell and a chance encounter with that skunk.
We needed to turn around before reaching the Brothers Base Camp, due to time restraints. I want to return one day, to finish this hike.
On the way back down, the sun momentarily broke through the clouds to give us a clear look at Lena Lake from the north end of the Lake.
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