Lena Lake, Lena Lake - Valley of Silent Men Snowshoe & Upper Lena Lake — Sunday, May. 9, 2010

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

Lena Lake and the trails from it are a moss lover's paradise. Moss blankets everything in gentle greens while incredibly tall trees spire to the sky. Lena Lake is very popular with families and troops of hikers of all ages and abilities. Besides violets, there are some Calypso Orchids along the trail. The trailhead starts from the parking lots on the side of the Hamma Hamma River road. There are no outhouses but plenty of signs. The well groomed trail makes long lazy switchbacks up 3 miles to the lake. There is one big 3' diameter blowdown just before the lake that is a challenge to climb over. Plenty of nice campsites and an outhouse at the lake. At the north end of the lake is the Bridge Not Far Enough. It crosses most of Lena Creek but you have to splash through some water to reach it. From there the trail is sometimes very nice and sometimes indistinct. Up through the Valley of the Silent Men there are many blowdowns and the creek has washed away some of the trail. This is one of the approaches to summit the Brothers. There are two trails from Lena Lake to Upper Lena and both have problems. The trail that starts before you get to Lena Lake has blowdowns including one that fell onto the length of the trail. The other trail has nasty blowdowns and a whole section that is nothing but a running creek. Take the first trail. After they join, the going is excellent. Nice trail, gentle grade and only one big blowdown that requires straddling to get over. There is snow by the time you get to the bottom of the steep part to ascend up to Upper Lena. I didn't go there but it looks like a worthwhile hike for another time.