August 14, 2020

Lower Lena Lake is only the start. Past the lake, the trail drops into a stretch called the Valley of the Silent Men, which is moss over everything, a creek running through the middle, and a waterfall tucked back into a mossy grotto. At one point we shared the trail with a small band of mountain goats who didn't seem inclined to move. I picked wild blueberries off the bushes along the way, which might be the best trail snack there is. Keep going past all of that and the trail stops being a trail. You've crossed into the Brothers Wilderness, and from here it's a climb.

The Brothers were named back in 1856 by a surveyor for his fiancée's two brothers, Arthur and Edward. That's a better story than most mountains get, and better than the 1968 proposal to rename them "The Brothers Kennedy," which never went anywhere. They're the tallest peaks in the wilderness that carries their name. Above climber's camp, the trail turns into loose scree and then a narrow, exposed scramble through a section called the Hourglass: 3rd and 4th class moves, helmet on, and not a great place to make a wrong turn. I eyed a false summit short of the real one before the cairns set me straight. The Brothers is one of the only Olympic peaks visible from Seattle, and standing on the summit block you can see why, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound spread out past the ridgeline below. (For an Olympics peak nobody's heard of, there's Mount Washington.)

If you'd rather see the Olympics from the coast, Shi Shi Beach is a much flatter trip.

Trail details

Distance: 16 to 18 miles round trip, depending on whose numbers you trust
Elevation gain: about 6,000 feet, to a summit of 6,866 feet
Trailhead: Lena Lake, 7.5 paved miles up Hamma Hamma River Road from US 101 near milepost 318, about 14 miles north of Hoodsport
Passes: Northwest Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass at the trailhead
Time: most people make it an overnight, camping at climber's camp around 3,000 feet and going for the summit the next morning
Difficulty: an unmaintained climber's route above Lena Lake, then loose scree and the Hourglass, with 3rd and 4th class moves and real exposure; wear a helmet and know how to find your way
Source: WTA (checked October 2026)

Jereme standing by a stump on the shore of Lower Lena Lake, forested mountains behind the water Small waterfalls spilling into a mossy grotto in the Valley of the Silent Men Waterfall pouring through a narrow rock gorge into a clear turquoise pool Backpacker with a helmet clipped to his pack crossing a log bridge with a handrail through mossy forest Group of white mountain goats standing on the trail among moss-covered boulders View from inside a hollow old-growth tree trunk, light coming through openings in the bark Hand holding a red cup full of wild blueberries picked along the trail Looking straight up the trunk of a huge old-growth tree growing beside a boulder Forested ridges and jagged Olympic peaks under a clear blue sky, seen from high on the climb View from the summit of The Brothers over rocky ridges toward Puget Sound and the distant water Jereme standing on the summit block of The Brothers, looking out over the Olympic Mountains

Good tools make hard work easy. Bad tools make easy work hard.