Trail to Lower Lena Lake was clear of snow and major blow-downs, from Trailhead to latrine at campground. The trail continues to Upper Lena Lake or across a log bridge to more campsites and then on to the Brothers. The trail across the bridge was clear and there were many places for camping on that side of the lake. We did not venture towards Upper Lena Lake since at the Trailhead, a recent post in the register noted "thigh-high deep snow 2.5 miles from Upper Lena Lake." Lower Lena Lake is still about 2/3 frozen over, but open around the shore and on the north end. If you decide to camp, watch out for brave squirrels who want to break their winter fast with your food. The last couple of miles on the Forest Road were snow covered but we had no problems getting through with our 2-wheel drive and low-clearance vehicle. Although after the recent snow this weekend, those conditions could have changed. Public Service Announcement: This was our third trip to Lena Lake in a year, and as usual we packed out a plastic shopping bag (found at the Lake) full of garbage. I know the folks that read this are aware of the "rules" of hiking, i.e. Leave No Trace, but I'm mentioning it here anyway to remind you to bring a bag to pick up a few pieces of trash before you leave the Lake. With everyone's help, the place will look great. Thanks

We hadn't done any climbing in the Olympics, so thought we'd do an overnight and summit the peak that always tempts us on the horizon... The Brothers. We unfortunately chose one of the hottest weekends to to this. We headed up early on Friday across to Kingston and over to the Lena Lake TH. The parking lot wasn't full [yet] with all of the many families and campers we saw Saturday. We hiked about 7 miles around Lena Lake and then up to the end of the formal trail at the Y in the river. The bugs were somewhat bothersome, but left us alone after sundown. We awakened early and followed a well-marked trail up to the burn of 2006. Contrary to what we thought, the trail was easily followed all the way to the summit. There truly was some degee of ""trail"" all the way up. We brought our ice axes, but they probably won't be needed any longer. There was only one sketchy snow bridge which will be surely melted next week. I would highly suggest wearing a helmet, as there is so much loose scree the entire way, and this tumbles on down the couloir and could hit unsuspecting hikers below. We could not believe some of the people hiking with no helmet, too little water (less than a liter), and tennis shoes??!!! The summit was a fly-fest, so we only stayed a short time, but long enough to take in the breathtaking views. We then started the hot descent. It had heated up to a toasty 89-90 degrees, even up at 6000+ feet. The way down is where one can easily lose the trail, but after a short bushwhack through the fire burn, we found the trail again. We packed up camp and headed out the long, hot 7 miles to the car. By the time we rounded the lake, it was packed with tents. I'm not sure there was room for everyone?! We hit the road and treated ourselves up at the Sol Duc Hot Springs for the night. Blissful!

Upper Lena to Lake of the Angels traverse: August 6-8, 2008 After visiting the upper Lena Lake and Lake of the Angels environs on day trips over the years, I wanted to take some extra time and tie the two together in a loop. A couple of nights sounded about right. With a nice weather forecast, up the Hamma Hamma I went Wednesday morning. With the road washed out between the trailheads, I left the Lena Lake parking lot about 10am. Found a few blowdowns between lower and upper Lena, where I got my first heavy dose of skeeters. Only one group of day hikers encountered. I continued on up the ridge to camp near Deerheart (photo). Walking along the ridge was quite nice. I camped on the knoll just above the lake in an attempt to find a bug-less breeze. Had a tantalizing view of St Peter’s Gate on the shoulder of Mt Stone through the treetops near camp. The way trail’s easy to follow to just beyond Deerheart. With another a leisurely start Thursday, off I went trying to keep an eye out for the area where the way trail to Stone Ponds Pass departs from the trail down to Scout Lake. I managed to miss it in spite of myself, knowing for sure that I’d missed it when I’d dropped down and encountered the tricky veggie belay section. Not really too bad, but not wanted to attempt it solo, I turned around, climbed back up a bit, and then thrashed a traverse upwards across heather and small subalpine trees to find the way trail a couple of hundred feet above. Now, cruising again… into and through the beautiful lush and open basin just below Stone Ponds Pass. Many tarns, flowers, etc. At the pass options were to drop down to the upper Stone Pond or stay higher to traverse toward the Gate. Upper Stone Pond is nice, beautiful color and quite open, especially on the south. What a nice spot! I was drawn to St Peters Gate however, and decided to traverse down through a short bit of woods to side hill into open meadow and talus. At this point there were two route options (photo) (1) a higher meadow traverse leading to a long snow ledge that connected with the last major snow basin just below the Gate, or (2) a slightly traverse down across talus to the closest snowfield and then up to a scree constriction leading to the upper snow field. I opted for the latter, without difficulties. Lunch at St Peters Gate, then down the steep section at the top, through talus, down across the snowfield to exit into the boulders and heather to intersect the footpath leading down to Lake of the Angels by mid-afternoon. Had the place to myself, except for more skeeters and a band of 15-20 mountain goats that were drawn to my sweaty gear and self. They kept me busy the rest of the day and greeted me before light the next morning. I’d advise avoiding the campsite to the north of the lake, as it seemed very much to be THEIRS. Goats and skeeters hastened my departure from the lake basin Friday morning, down and down, to a very nice lunch spot beside the Whitehorse Creek road crossing near the trailhead. Took a tad over an hour to walk from there down the road to the Lena trailhead.

Trail Conditions: No snow until almost at the Upper Lena Lake. And then only a couple patches. Sections that earlier required an ice axe per a report in june have since melted out; none needed now. Couple difficult blowdowns to cross, and several easier ones. Water/mud on the trail. Lena creek crossing is fine on slippery but level rocks or you can go downstream 30 feet for an alternate (easier?) crossing. South face of Mt Lena is completely snow-free. Mt Bretherton had some long vertical snow patches on it's north/east flank as seen from the lake but was largely snowfree. Upper Lena Lake completely melted and patches of melting snow remain around the shore. Campsites are snow-free. View of Rainier was outstanding. Lots of flowers on the trail, especially near the Upper lake: Trilliums, Avalanche Lillies, Lupine, Paintbrush, Phlox, Heather, and numerous others. Saw huckle(blue?)berry and strawberry plants but no berries. At the lake there were a couple mosquitoes (not bad) but plenty of no-see-ums. Campsites are all melted out and a too-friendly GOAT tried to keep us company all night.

Day trip to South Brother from Lena Lake trailhead. Lena Lake trail is clear and fast. Encountered a few blowdowns on the East Fork Lena Creek trail in the ""Valley of the Silent Men"", as well as a 1/4 mile stretch of intermittent washout just after the first bridge crossing to the E side of the creek. Pay attention to the flagging for the easiest route through. Trail is again clear and easy to follow from the campsites @ 3,000 ft up to the slide/burn. Above the burn found the melted out stream bed a bit easier to navigate than the ""trail"" on the right (E) bank. Hit snow around 4,000 ft, soft on top but pretty firm underneath on the cloudy day, made good use of our crampons. Saw others doing fine on snowshoes. Some of the cruxes have already melted out, made for a couple of interesting snow/rock transitions. Took the crampons off for the climb past lunch rock and up through the trees (no snow in the hourglass) then followed the cairns left (W) back to snow and put the crampons back on for the last gully up to the summit. At the base of the summit spires saw blue sky for the first time all day, and it apparently confused us since we promptly ascended the lower SW spire. Seemed silly to climb 6000 feet and fall 80 feet short, so we descended and swung around to the E to reach the true summit. Rewarded with a spectacular view looking down on a sea of clouds, especially to the N where the heights of Constance and Inner Constance shone in the sun while the stream of clouds flowed W to E through the Duckabush and Dosewallips drainages. Took it easy on the way down given the fast snow and lots of holes/undercutting water, but the wide open spots made for great boot-skiing.