Oh Brothers...

Last weekend I scooted up the Brother Mountains (South Peak) on the Olympic Peninsula with Glenn and Mac . It could have been the hottest day in the Pacific Northwest in 2008 as far as I am concerned, wow it was a scorcher. We started the day off early in Seattle and headed down to Tacoma to pick up Glenn. Down to Olympia and up 101 just past Hoodsport to FS 25 where we drove to the Lena Lake trail head.

The First three miles to Lena Lake flew by as we carried a pretty brisk pace, running the flats and fast hiking the climbs...lots of climbing the entire time. We were surrounded by old growth forest and different shades of green coming off of everything. When you adventure out in the Olympic Peninsula you enter the forest, and you know it. This place is truly amazing.

After Lena Lake we kept moving along on the Brothers Trail until the first split in the creek that it follows on and off. We passed many campers and we got a kick out of Glenn making sure that all the hungover campers were woken up with his rowdy stories and occasional clapping. Once we headed West the trail dissipates and starts to really work its way up. We entered an area that had been burnt out from a fire last year and the trail ends and route finding begins. Not very difficult, we jumped in a dry creek bed and followed that up until the top becomes visible.

Somebody turned the heat up on us and I started to sweat profusely. Just in time to run into some snow melt and an underground spring that filled our waterhole on the way up and the way down. After that it was heads down one foot in front of the next on our way up. We reached the peak at around 3pm and soaked in the views for a while. There was a bit of haze in the air but I was still able to make out Rainier and Downtown Seattle from the top. As well we started filling our to do list with more peaks...Constance, Ellanor, Jupiter, Washington, Bretherton (sp?)

The slog back to the car was pretty uneventful, except for the refreshing swim in Lena Lake and a small break for our legs. We spent most of our time talking about what we were going to eat on our way home...we settled for the double T in Hoodsport at some bar with a human size picture of a cheeseburger on the outside...it was scrumptious!

Successful trip, looking forward to many more in the area.