Lena Lake, The Brothers — Friday, May. 23, 2008

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

We went up to Lena Lake for the Friday through Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The trail up to Lena lake was well maintained, clear of any snow, and it was a very enjoyable hike carrying 30-50 lbs of gear each. Once at Lena Lake, the trail proved to be less maintained then on the way up. There was a blow-down tree across the trail between the first set of campsites (which were not very well marked) and the path taking you up to Upper Lena Lake. Also, you had to deal with some water (1-2 feet depending on the time of day) while getting to and across the bridge that takes you to the other side of the lake where there is the rest of the campsites and the trail to The Brothers (#821). The brothers trail had many blow-down trees across it and there was snow on and off over much of the 3 miles of the ""maintained"" trail. Neither snow shoes or crampons were needed for the trail, but that is only for the trail b/c we did not summit the mountain. However, the snow was a little unstable in places and there is a chance for injury if you are not careful. All-in-all it was a very nice hike up to the base camp, but it took a little longer then we anticipated due to the snow, blow-downs, and having to find trail markers through the blow downs. We met several people who did summit the brothers and they didn't seem to have any problems going to the summit of the south peak.