Tamarack Lake Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness, Montana

All right well we are here at what I think might be the Middle Fork of Rock Creek trailhead. About to head in the Anaconda Pintlers Wilderness. First time in this range for me. Got me and Kenny and Timber. We just staged the rig so we're about to take off here and we're heading in for three nights, four days. Starting from the Middle Fork trailhead we were planning on getting to Johnson Lake that day. We'd follow the Falls Fork of Rock Creek for six miles up to the lake. After a long drive to get to the trailhead we were hoping we had enough light to get to camp. Looks like we got some weather building. All right into the wilderness we go. We got a little thunder chasing us right now. We got a ways to go. See what happens. Good to be here. Soon as we got away from the trailhead we were hiking through a burn. With thunderstorms looming on the horizon we were hoping we wouldn't get caught out in the open when it hit. All right it's hailing on us. We got nowhere to go. Ain't nothing for us here. Oh my god look at that water fall. Oh my god. First hit on me. Wow that was nuts. Took a few to the head. We just try to get close to these trees. That's all we could do. There's nowhere to go. Oh god. After the hail storm it just settled into rain. I can almost see the sun. Well it got so bad there that we stopped and threw on rain jackets and now it might be letting up. Absolutely nowhere to hide out here. Another storm bearing down. With another storm on its way in we made a push for the lake. We hit the lake and looked around for the best spot. When the thunder started we quickly got our shelters up and prepared for rain. At camp I could hear what I thought sounded like a herd of buffalo coming over the mountain. It turned out to be something else. Samberg come here. Come here. **** here. Come here. Stay. Stay. Stay. Stay here bud. Stay here. Stay. Stay. My god this is crazy. Holy hell. As the storm picked up I was just hoping my gear would survive. Stay here bud. Meanwhile Kenny was down at the lake. Timber stay. Come on Kenny get under here. And then just like that it was over. On day two we would have our toughest hike of the trip. We'd retrace our steps back down the highline trail and then make our way down and around Porter Ridge. From there we would start our climb up through Glover Basin to the lake. All right morning day two. We're just headed out of camp. Got seven-ish miles today to get into I think it's Tamarack Lake today. About 1600 feet of gain. And we're headed right back into the burn section. Beautiful day so far. Well we just dropped into this new drainage and it looks like everything is burnt here too. Kind of hoping on this side it would be a little better but it's not. Hopefully there's a couple good trees at the lake. Hiking through a burnt forest completely exposed to the sun was taking a toll on me. The final climb up to the lake would be a real challenge. Okay just made the turn to Tamarack Lake. Mile and a half maybe. About a 500 foot more gain. Second storm of the afternoon is here. Caught myself some ramen. Man I was dragging in here. Just had enough energy to get the hammock set up because it was rumbling. Now I'm just slowly getting through this. Start to feel some energy come back to my body. Who knows might get a C.S. Dan. Nope that's not a fact. All right. On our way. All right well it is uh day three. Just pulling out of Tamarack Lake. This should be should be the easiest hike of the trip and I'm pretty excited about that. Once again we would retrace our route out of the lake before continuing on the Highline Trail. We'd go around the point of a ridge before dropping down into Carp Lake. We noticed on the way into the lake the day before that there seemed to be a bunch of petrified wood in this drainage. Before we knew it we were at the lake. Kenny scouted around and found us a great spot down the trail towards Warren Pass. We got to the lake early enough that it left us most of the day to explore around a bit. The lake got crowded with campers that night but being down away from the main sights left us alone to enjoy the last night of the trip. All right good morning. Morning of day four and we're almost packed up and out of here. It's about 7 30. We're gonna take a different way back than was on the map. Hopefully it means very very little uphill today and it seems about the same mileage so hopefully this is the way to go. Been an awesome trip. Yeah we'll get out of one more hike out. For the hike out we were changing our route from what we had originally planned on doing. From the lake we'd hike down to Carp Creek and then follow the creek back to the trailhead where we had left my truck four days ago. I hadn't considered this route before and I was just hoping that the trail would be there and we could make it out. Hopefully this is the toughest hill we do today. All right this is all new trail now. Didn't put a lot of thought into this trail. Just looked at it on the map thought it'd be the good way to go. Hopefully I'm not wrong. All right we've hit the junction with the Carp Creek trail headed back towards the Middle Fork. Go T! Was happy I had the chance to get out once again with the Idaho-nia. It's always great to get to hang out with Kenny for a few days and we're already talking about where we'll go for the next one. Trailhead's in sight. This is fantastic. Cheers! We survived. Barely.