TR: tamarack lake, lonely lake, and the tablelands (8/20-24 2019)

[notis]

I'll add to the chorus: inspiring photos, but even better write up. I love subtle humor. Guess you're even trying to follow Maia's writing, too--I enjoy her stuff the same!

I never thought of heading up the outlet of Lonely Lake instead of going to Elizabeth Pass then W over Lonely Lake Pass/Horn Col. Looks steep on the topo but from your write up it seems like relatively easy walking?

EDIT: yep, looks like less elevation gain than Elizabeth to Lonely Lake Pass/Horn Col, too!

[xcountry rider]

Great report and photos. Thanks for the TR.

[Harlen]

Great route, great photos! Thanks for posting your trip. Ian.

[Lumbergh21]

Thanks for sharing. Lonely Lake looks particularly appealing to me.

[frozenintime]

@notis, i have my own sense of humor thank you very much!!

the walking up the outlet is somewhat unrelenting (as i'm sure the top half of the elizabeth pass trail is!), but certainly not hard. it's very beautiful as well. there is one steeper spot where we crossed to the west side of the outlet to ascend on slabs instead of brush, but otherwise you just kinda keep going up and then all of a sudden you're at the lake. getting around the rocky west side of the lake was probably "harder" than the entire hike up to it.

[notis]

Haha, I love it!

Thank you for the info! I was planning a trip up that way soon, and it'll be nice to save a few hundred feet of gain on the way to Lonely Lake instead of going over Elizabeth Pass.

[druid]

Haha, I love it!

Thank you for the info! I was planning a trip up that way soon, and it'll be nice to save a few hundred feet of gain on the way to Lonely Lake instead of going over Elizabeth Pass.

If instead of hugging the outlet creek you loop around just a bit and come in from the NW you can avoid all the talus, without any unnecessary elevation gain.

[frozenintime]

@druid, yes after spending some time at lonely and taking the lay of the land, it's obvious that it would've been much easier to stay farther NW than we did at shoreline. it's obvious on the topo too, we just weren't looking to closely. and to be honest, it was a kind of fun scramble around the lake.

i hope you make it out there, @notis, it's an amazing spot.

[maiathebee]

in the glorious, pre-pandemic days of august 2019, we did "the maia special" -- a route borrowed almost verbatim from maia's excellent 2018 trip report (https://plutoniclove.com/2018/07/07/tam ... onal-park/).

oh wow, yay! i'm so glad y'all got to do this. looks like you had a great time!