The logical road to Lena Lakes is #25 but it is under construction and says closed. #2480 also takes you there in a very indirect fashion.

Warning to anyone headed for Lena Lakes: Hamma Hamma road is closed. There is a sign suggesting one go down to an SR road from Hoodsport, but there is heavy, time consuming constuction on Hwy 101 getting there. Not wanting to go all the way back, and not knowing the condition or length of said SR road, I opted to go north to to other trailheads, instead.

The trail to Upper Lena is clear of blowdown except for one large root wad just below the lake basin. On Fri. the lake basin was very foggy, temporarily dashing my hopes for good viewing of the Perseid meteor shower. The fog cleared in the wee hours of Sat. morning, exposing not only the meteor shower but also a nice display of northern lights. It got plenty cold and a thick layer of frost covered the ground next to the lake on Sat. morning. My thermometer registered 26 degrees, but fortunately the sun came out and it got warm rather quickly. I day hiked to Scout Lake to scope out some potential traverses to L. of the Angel and/or Hagen Lake. The Scout Lake way trail was very brushy near Upper Lena, but became much more open once it climbed into the heather and huckleberry fields. Excellent views. A few small snow patches still lingered, but were no problem. I had trouble finding the supposed route to L. of the Angels, as described in Wood's book, but the route to Hagen looked intriging. I returned to FR 25 on a knee crunching descent just as teeming hordes of backpackers were invading Upper Lena from the lower lake.

Trail in very good condition up tp Lena Lake. Trail up the valley of Slient men has a few blowdown trees and wash outs but passable. The way trail to the brothers from camping spot at 3100 feet is ok until 3600 feet. Large snow slide covered trail and made it impossiable to follow. The trick is to cross creek on left and follow it in the unaffected forest up to the end of the slide. And then cross creek and find trail in dry creek bed about 3800 feet. -TM

Lena Lake Trail is in great shape from the trailhead to the Lower Lake and all the campsites at the lake have long ago dried out. Beyond the Lake to the end of the official Brothers Trail (3 more miles) the trail is snowfree with almost no mud and just a few blowdowns. The unofficial climbing path that continues from the end of the maintained trail (*NOT a trail*) to The Brothers (Route 1 for S. Brother, etc.) is in reasonable shape until the 1st meadow one crosses just before bearing right away from the stream and into the long gully toward the summit of S. Brother. The climbers path thru this meadow has been totally obliterated by a large avalanche. To get around the impasse, leave the path and cross over to the other side of the stream just before breaking out into the meadow under the cliffs and follow up the other side of the stream until you are past the avalanche debris. Then look for flags on trees, leading you back across the stream and following up hill perpendicular to the stream along the edge of the meadow until you intersect the path again. Snow starts in the gully about 4500'. Ignore wands you may encounter along the main stream above the meadow. These were probably put there by some poor lost souls.