Three day trip with a friend and three kids (14, 11, 11) camping at Lena Lake with a side trip up to Brothers Base Camp.
Day One
Hiked in Sunday leaving the trailhead around 1pm. Trailhead toilets were open and stocked, maybe not the cleanest. Parking lot was 90% full. Trail itself was in great repair with no bugs worth remarking. Met plenty of day hikers and backpackers coming down. A few red huckleberries going up. Arriving around 3pm, all of the sites on the west bank were free, and only a few sites on the northeast side of the lake were occupied. We opted for a large site by the mouth of Lena Creek where the kids could play on the many logs piled up. Campsite was bug free. There was quite a bit of trash at the site; we picked up various items including a fishing line/hook/sinker/float and other gems.
The composting toilet on the west side is out of service. Some reports note a toilet on the north side, but we never found one.
Side note: the trail to the north side crosses Lena Creek a few hundred yards upstream from the lake. There are some logs here that you can cross the creek on. Some hikers were making their way down the south bank to cross at the bigger (and more stable) logs at the mouth of the creek, but frankly it's faster and easier to cross at the trail than to make the detour.
Day Two
We did a day hike up the trail to the Brothers Base Camp (trail 821). This trail has seen better days - two out of the three bridges washed out and several hundred yards of trail washed out too. However, while the trail was narrow, rocky, and sometimes a little overgrown, it was never too hard to follow, with special thanks to the pink trail markers that guided hikers through the washed out section. Many logs fallen, and obviously have been down for years given the side trails circumventing them, but only one posed our group a little difficulty in crossing. At the remnants of the third bridge, be sure to walk a few yards to the south and cross on the log - much nicer than fording the creek. No bugs, lots and lots of ripe huckleberries (red and blue) and salmonberries. Slow going; mostly due to extensive berry consumption. We met only one other party walking up as we walked out.
Back at camp we were able to swim in the lake, but it isn't the warmest. About half the sites appeared to be occupied that evening (Monday), notably the northeast side was most popular - maybe because the sites are more private?
Day Three
Packed up and started hiking out by 9am. Someone had set up a campsite right where the trail crosses Lena Creek - not an official site by any means and there were plenty of official sites standing empty. Met three backpacking parties coming up. Back at the trailhead by 10:30am. A very pleasant trip, but not one if you are looking for solitude. We met groups from the UK and Australia along with locals, clearly a well known destination!
Comments