LENA LAKE TRAIL

Length 3.5 rru/5.6 km
Access Hamma Hamma River Road (FS Road 25) 
USGS Maps The Brothers; Mount Washington 
Agency Olympic National Forest

This popular trail begins 7.6-mi/12.2 km from Hood Canal on HS Road 25, 
at 700-ft/213 m elevation. The path is virtually a boulevard-broad and 
smooth, with an easy grade. The original trail was much steeper, but 
about twenty years ago the Forest Service realigned it, thus making it 
considerably longer. Most of the year the trail is free of snow.

At first the trail climbs slopes covered with second-growth fir (the 
original stands having been logged). The path then enters virgin forest, 
where the under-story consists of vine maple, bigleaf maple, huckleberry, 
and salal. Many hikers cut the long, sweeping switchbacks, where the trail 
closely parallels itself on the turns, but this should be avoided because 
it results in unsightly erosion.

After climbing some distance, the trail approaches Lena Creek. The stream 
rushes noisily in its canyon but is hidden by the forest. The trees are 
larger here, reflecting more favorable soil and moisture conditions. The 
trail traverses above the creek, then crosses the streambed on a sturdy 
bridge (1.8 mi/2.9 km). The creek usually flows underground at this point; 
thus the bridge spans a dry channel consisting of big, moss-covered boulders, 
but one can hear the stream gushing forth from the rocks not far below the 
bridge.

The sound of Lena Creek fades as the trail climbs to a knoll, where one can 
look down the valley. The trail then traverses beneath cliffs of overhanging 
basalt and crosses a tributary of Lena Creek. An unmarked path leads to the 
right, just beyond the bridge. This is a remnant of the old trail, which 
approached the lake at the southwest corner. The new trail traverses above 
the lake, which is hidden by the timber.

Beyond the junction with the Upper Lena Lake Trail (2.8 mi/4.5 km; 2100ft/ 
640 m), the route descends to Lena Lake (3.0 mi/4.8 km; 1800 ft/549 m). The 
lake was created by rockslides that dammed Lena Creek, not by glacial action. 
The lake's level fluctuates, sometimes by 20 feet or more, reaching its low 
point in late summer or early fall. Apparently this results because the debris 
dam is composed of loosely consolidated material. (This probably explains why 
the outlet creek usually flows underground for some distance and why the trail 
crosses a dry channel.) When the water is low, stumps and snags protrude from 
the lake; when the water is high, bushes and small trees along the shore are 
submerged.

Having an area of 55 acres, Lena Lake is larger than the sub alpine lakes, 
but smaller than several lowland lakes, in the Olympics. The lake, which 
contains rainbow and Eastern brook trout, is roughly quadrangular in shape, 
with the outlet at the south end. Lena Creek flows into the northwest corner 
and East Fork Lena Creek into the northeast corner. Forest-clad mountainsides 
surround the lake which arc broken by outcrops of rock. Many camps along the 
shore, which have received heavy use over the years, are now closed because the 
Forest Service is attempting to restore the vegetation. The agency has built a 
splendid new camping area on the north side of the lake in a stand of huge, 
ancient firs to alleviate the burden on the lakeshore campsites.

The trail along the lakes western shore-which is part of the original trail-is 
little more than a mass of roots and rocks, crossed by numerous little streams. 
The forest consists of fir and hemlock.

The trail divides near a mass of pillow lava known as Chapel Rock. The left 
branch, the high water trail, goes over the rock; the right one, the low water 
trail, traverses beneath the rock and cannot be used when the lake is high. 
Chapel Rock is a warm, pleasant place, a tranquil spot that overlooks the lake.

One can see scars on the mountainsides, where the slides occurred that formed 
the lake. Except for an airplane now and then, or perhaps a distant logging 
truck, one hears nothing but nature's sounds. During the fall, when Lena Creek 
is low, the stream murmurs gently as it flows into the lake, but on hot days 
in early summer, when the snow melts rapidly in the high country, the booming 
sounds like distant cannonading.

Beyond Chapel Rock the high and low routes come back together, and the trail 
goes by Camp Cleland, situated among tall firs and hemlocks. Here one is likely 
to be besieged by camp robbers, those delightful feathered beggars known by a 
variety of names.

The trail ends at an intersection near the northwest corner of the lake (3.5 mi/ 
5.6 km; 1900 ft/579 m). The Brothers Trail goes right; the path to the left, 
an abandoned remnant (0.3 mi/0.5 km in length) of the old trail to Upper Lena 
Lake, joins the new section of that trail northwest of Lena Lake.