Leon Turnbull Photography

I woke up in the middle of the night to use the facilities. Outside my tent I saw a huge spider on the ground. I did not think anything of it. It looked harmless. I took a step away from my tent and towards it to go find a place to pee. All of a sudden the spider went into attack mode and came towards my feet at lightning pace. I stepped back just as quickly. Holy freaking mother of all things evil! What the heck was that? It was right near my tent door so I closed off my tent so it could not get inside while I went in a different direction, never taking my eyes off where it went to. Needless to say, I also checked my shoes in the morning that were left outside my tent.

It was a short hike up from Lone Pine Creek Falls to Tamarack Lake but a lot of elevation gain (1600 ft.). The trail to Tamarack Lake is quite overgrown. I am not impressed with the park service. This is an official trail in the park but seems to be completely neglected and unmaintained.

When I arrived at Tamarack Lake I was greeted by a million angry customers that are named mosquito. They were absolutely horrible. This was the first problem I have had with the little monsters all trip. I had some but not many at Nine Mile Creek, very few at Hamilton Lake, none at Nine Lake Basin, none at Lone Pine Creek, and now this nightmare at Tamarack Lake. Why?? I was not expecting to find any at Tamarack Lake because it is higher elevation than the other locations. Afterwards, from reading other hiker’s reports, I came to a realization of what I think happened: ALL the mosquitoes hatched on this one day (at least in this area of the HST – but it seems in other areas of the Sierra Nevada also) and now they are out in total invasion force. Someone said that it seemed to him that in one day the mosquitoes finally downloaded the full mosquito instruction manual and finished reading it. That seems an appropriate description to me.

I had to hide out in my tent all afternoon to get away from the buggers (and I was not the only one there that had to resort to the tent retreat). Fires are not allowed at Tamarack Lake so that was not an option. It was another hot day. I set up my tent beside some trees, thinking they would give me some shade and relief but I guess I miscalculated where the sun would go in the afternoon because it missed the trees and was shining directly on my tent. I propped up my tent pad so it would block the sun and that gave me some shade in the tent. There was also some breeze which helped. I was able to nap in the afternoon.

In the evening I went up to see the waterfall at the inlet to Tamarack Lake. It was not an easy adventure. I first had to wade across the outlet stream. This was not difficult but I did have to wear my water shoes and then on the other side put my hiking boots back on. This allowed the mosquitoes enough time to gather their forces for a full out attack. Beaten but not deterred, I continued on to the waterfall. There is a huge rock slide that you need to climb up. The boulders are enormous and it is difficult and potentially dangerous to climb them but I managed to find a safe way through (I was not expecting that I would be able to do it). When I got close to the waterfall I came to a wall of thick brush that was impassable. There was no way through. I decided to cross the creek and try the other side. I climbed up to a ledge that I thought was going to give me a glorious view of the waterfall but instead there was a rock wall that blocked off half the falls from view. Dang. This was no good. I went back across the creek and tried the brush again. This time I found a way through (it was not easy), and finally came up to the waterfall. Magnificent Tamarack Lake Falls, 80 ft. high. Here also was the only place at Tamarack Lake where I found little or no mosquitoes. Relief! How do you spell relief? (side note: who is old enough to remember that commercial and can tell me what it was for without looking it up?)

Alas, I had to get back down to my tent before dark. I hurried back through the brush and past the boulder field and crossed the outlet stream to my tent. Now it was dusk. There were five million mosquitoes at my tent waiting for me. As quickly as possible I got ready for bed and crawled into my tent, trying to keep all the monsters out. A few got in but I fought back with my machine guns and shored up my defenses. Then I realized I left my phone and Inreach outside. Ugh. I had to go back out to retrieve them. I barely survived the second assault. Good night day 5.