Strange direction leading to lake (5)
I believe the answer is:
eerie
'strange' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'direction leading to lake' is the wordplay.
'direction' becomes 'e' (E is an example).
'leading to' says to put letters next to each other (some letters go before or lead others).
'lake' becomes 'erie' (Lake Erie is one of the Canadian/US 'Great Lakes').
'e'+'erie'='EERIE'
(Other definitions for eerie that I've seen before include "Oddly frightening" , "spine-chilling" , "Frighteningly odd" , "Strange, frightening" , "Spooky, weird" .)