Snow free to the lake, lots of people out backpacking on this Wednesday! Several trees down over the trail but all are pretty easy to cross over or under. Some water running across the trail near the lake but that's normal there.

On Tuesday morning, we (Daisy and I) awoke (at the Elk Lake trailhead) to fair skies and warm temperatures. A leisurely breakfast, a short drive back to the Lena Lake TH, and we were hiking again. This trail also (like the Duckabush) starts off easy but plain, and then gets better and better. The trees get huge, the moss carpets everything, giant boulders tumbled in heaps, you cross an underground river on a bridge (really!), and eventually reach Lena lake. The lake is nice but not great. The wind had apparently just changed direction, as the driftwood was drifting like crazy. It was very pleasant to look down on the lake from the view cliff about 1/2 way along, letting the sun warm my back. After about an hour, Daisy was restless to hike some more, so I humored her, and we headed towards the Brothers wilderness boundary and the Valley of the Silent Men (cue spooky music). By this time the few other people in the area had long since departed, and we had the whole place to ourselves. The emerald green water at the far end of the lake was as emerald green as I remembered it, and the campsites as plentiful. A short way after the wilderness boundary, maybe 1/2 mile at the most, we came to the section of the trail that has been hammered by numerous blowdowns of gigantic trees, as reported by Sydney Kaplan on 4-7-06. It was an awesome sight. The section is passable, with care and patience, but beyond that are the first snowy sections of any size that I encountered, and the trail does get hard to follow, meaning both kinds of difficulty, route-finding and post-holing. Still a nice taste of the VotSM is available to be seen. If you love moss gardens, where moss covers everything, and I do mean everything, then this is the place for you. We headed back at 6 pm, and made the four miles to the car in three easy hours, no flashlight used, though for the last half-hour it might have made more sense to have used one. I easily made the last ferry out of Kingston at 11:10 pm, and was home by midnight.

Blow-downs galore! These trails need some serious help by a chainsaw. The trail to lower lena is better than upper lena. You only have to navigate a couple of the trees. The upper trail though is just plain nasty. You can work your way around all of them, but a couple are fairly though. I did not make it all the way to upper lena lake due to the fact that i have never been there before and the amount of snow. I did get to 3600' though. I think I was following the trail but since it was under 10' of snow I'm not possitive. According to my map I was heading in the right direction. I checked my GPS and saw that I still had another 1000 vertical feet to go I decided to come back when there is less snow. I needed my crampons and iceax for a couple short sections on the way down. You will need snow shoes from the park boundary on up. Most people have been making it to the creek crossing and turning around there. I'm the only one to venture pass that point for awhile. It took me 5 hours to get froma the th to 3600'. That should tell you it's not easy. It gets tough after you cross the creek. The hike down was fast and smooth. Passed quite afew people on the trail. Happy trails. Oh yeah, now snow on the trail to lower lena.

Lena Lake is a good destination this time of year. The trail is largely snow free (a few small patches remain here and there)and is in good condition, except for a number of blowdowns, that have occurred in particularly awkward places on the trail. Yesterday turned out to be warm and sunny during our hike. The lake was as beautiful as I've ever seen it. We continued around to the Brothers trail and headed up it for a ways, enjoying the mysterious beauty of the Valley of the Silent Men. There was more snow here, and its contrast with the huge trees and mossy boulders was wonderful. The trail here is in terrible condition. Where it's not obliterated by blowdown, it is still hard to follow. We walked about twenty minutes in, but didn't get very far. We decided to turn back and investigate the far side of the lake. There's no real trail there, but we found short remnants of one and were able to pick our way around over boulders and under blowdown to a fabulous spot overlooking the lake with a view north to the peaks above Upper Lena, a view I've never seen before from Lower Lena. When we started our hike there was only one other car at the trailhead, but on our return, late in the afternoon, quite a few people were coming up the trail. I was surprised to see them starting out so late in the day. This is a popular spot, for good reason.

Mentally transport yourself to that happy place. You know the one – paved Forest Service road, just three cars at the trailhead at 11:00 on a sunny Saturday, a moderate elevation gain on a well-maintained trail, wildlife, trees, mini-waterfalls, moments of absolute silence, temperatures in the mid 50’s, a beautiful lake and picnic spot at the end. This was Lena Lake trail today! Daughter 2 was along for the trip, and we were happy to redeem ourselves after our last hike together -- an aborted attempt to reach Lake Serene. Had I gone solo, I was planning an earlier start and a longer hike to Upper Lena Lake. But we’ll probably return and try car camping at Lena Creek Campground (within walking distance of the Lena Lake trailhead) or Hamma Hamma as a base camp. We saw several spots where the old trail (back to the 1930’s, according to the guidebook) intersected with the much gentler new one. 1,900’+ of elevation gain over the 3.2 miles to the lake are noticeable, but easy to do spread over the whole trail. At the top, Chapel Rock makes a great spot to break out the sandwiches and look over the partially frozen lake. We took a tour of the campsites to see where best to stake a claim when the summer crowds hit. It’s all forest on this hike, and it seems rockier and rootier on the way down. There are some fallen trees, water on the trail and patches of snow, but nothing to make you turn around or don snowshoes. For those trekking with weak bladders, reluctant spouses, and/or shy children, note that there are vault toilets at the trailhead and composting toilets at the lake – some distance (1/8th mile?) from Chapel Rock.