9/7/2024 Climbing to The Brothers basecamp
Past Lena Lake, we walked by the little waterfall cave. We’d later find ourselves swimming in this same cave as we descended the mountain the next day.
My cousin and I were heading out this weekend to climb a mountain he had always noticed from his place in Ballard. While waiting for him to get to my place, I remembered that I had dreamt I was in a small cabin with a classroom of people. I and another guy were inspecting people for weapons. We found a couple guys in the back with guns and knives. We taped up the knives and put them on the sides of the room. Later, an alien spacecraft hovered over the cabin. We realized that we were going to be a part of an extraterrestrial event. The aliens entered the cabin. They were kind and said that we’d be a part of a journey. After some time, the vibe of the story revealed itself. It became clear that we were going to be repeating our lives and would be living under the observation of the aliens, for potentially millions of iterations. The dream ended before anything dissolved into any kind of desperation.
We left Seattle at 9am and reached Hamma Hamma about 2.5hrs later, without much traffic in Olympia. There were only about 25 cars in the Lena Lake trailhead parking lot. We’d be surprised when we came off the trail the next day to find about 70 cars. Lena Lake was also relatively quiet, without only a few groups. Lena did not look appealing to swim in since the water level was low.
We continued up the ‘Valley of the silent men’ consistently watching water levels in the river. We were concerned since there wasn’t any water in Lena Creek. Later we’d find sufficient water sources up closer to camp. We’d also find an incredible little cave with waterfalls further up the trail.
We reached camp at about 2pm, then took a small hike up the hill to identify our beta. This was a good move since the bush was thick and we had lost our way a couple of times. We then ventured back to camp, and drank beers at the river under our camp. The water was very cold, but made for a wonderful cold plunge. Afterwards, we cooked dinner (I had curry couscous with steak and eggs) and chatted about climbing beta in the area. We laughed about ‘beta spray’ from a couple of local outdoors bloggers, both named Kyle.
We retreated to our respective camps, but wouldn’t get much sleep because of the rodents that darted in and out of our food bags (which we failed to hang).
9/8/2024 Summit Day
We woke up at 4am and were on the trail by 420. It was already about 75 degrees and by the time we reached the top of ‘The Burn’ area I was already dripping with sweat. Given the smoke, there was limited views of the stars. I could already feel the smoke in my sinuses.
It was a challenge navigating to the base of the summit. There were numerous couloirs of choss that we needed traverse in order to reach the base of the final summit spire. We reached the summit by 7:30am at a comfortable pace. Although, it was good to travel in a 2 pack (just my cousin and I) since any larger groups would’ve required more time between ascending climbers to give room for falling scree to dissipate. Anytime scree like that is involved it’s great to leave early in order to get in and out before needing to work around any other group.
Once reaching the summit, I took a cat nap. Later on, my cousin would tell me that I was fast asleep. After the nap, we marveled at the enchanting, yet smoke filled scene around us. We warmed up some masala chai and coffee. Before leaving, we explored the rest of the summit, surprised it was so small considering how broad it looks from Seattle. My cousin mentioned that he heard goats in the distance, but we couldn’t see any from where we were on the summit.
Enjoying Chai and Chocolate Oatmeal on the summit.
Afterwards, we descended, running into two other climbing groups. Neither seemed particularly well prepared for the scramble, although both groups had helmets. We ascended to the treeline/ burn area by 11am. Just at the top of the treeline I saw a small water spring that could be tapped for water if needed.
We continued the descent to our camp, where we packed up. On the way from camp to Lena Lake (for lunch), we snacked on a prodigious amount of Blueberries and Huckleberries. On the way back, we stopped at a small cave to swim in the waterfall inside. It was an incredible place to hang out. The waterfall looked like something from Hawaii. From the waterfall we hiked the trail back to the Lena Lake 810 trailhead.
Heading back through Lena Lake, we were briefly disoriented and needed Gaia to get back on track – this made me realize how important GPS is even on easy returns. We also had this epiphany coming down from the summit. Without it we would’ve had some technical descents down cliffs.
The most incredible little water cave in the PNW. Something I thought I’d only see in Hawaii.
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