Lincoln Lake. A place I wanted to be so much better than it was. Like that one local pizza place we all know.

Original Post 07/16/21

I had never heard about this lake. Didn’t even know it existed in the park. Not a hike I necessarily sought out or I had on a list, just kind of there when I was thumbing thru a map of what I haven’t done locally. But pickings are starting to get a little slim in the LMD ecosystem. At least for day hikes, which is all I can do this summer.

I expected a classic GNP cirque lake. Lincoln is caught between the massive mountains of Mt. Jackson and Gunsight Pk. Each have enormous glacial environs and the headwaters of major streams. The lake itself is directly fed by Lake Ellen Wilson, one of the true gems in the park by it’s location and aesthetics (impossible to take a bad picture). Factor in hanging waterfalls and valley cascades as the H20 drops thousands of feet in less than a mile, and Lincoln Lake has everything going for it. Or should.

What keeps it’s popularity down is the shortest approach being 8 miles one way. That would make a nice overnighter given the backcountry campsite there, but you can’t loop it with anything. Basically an in-and-out. There is not really a day’s worth of side hikes to do in this valley; the walls are too steep and there are better climbing approaches to the peaks elsewhere. So now it Lincoln is stuck being just a long day hike, and that 7-8 hour trail commitment has a lot of competition given so many other pristine hikes nearby.

My first 2000 feet of gain was through all recent burns. Hazy smoke filled morning air. Then I had to drop down 1000 feet into the main drainage and then climb another 1000 back up to the lake.

At this point I could clearly see the next valley I would need to ascend between the Jackson and Gunsight massifs. Wildflowers were everywhere, but shade is was I really was hoping for as the day quickly climbed into the 90s.

The final 500′ push up to the lake was off a spur trail, which got swampy the last quarter mile. The lake was burned to the very shore. Lincoln Creek poured into Beaver Chief Falls, draining directly out of Ellen Wilson off a bench just above the headwall.

The lighting was bad, the lake murky with little access. Bugs were really bad and the shoreline brush was dense in most areas. At the places it opened up, you would have a long wade thru mud and debris to reach clean water. Only the outlet was broad/gravelly, so far away from the lake, and the only part of the this entire body of water that would attract a backpacker her. The 12” slow moving alpine trout looked like they could eat a pinky toe; the constant swam of black flies trying to lay eggs in my ear made the hard-earned visit to Lincoln brief.

Here is a quick video of my first hand observations at the time:

The backcountry campsites (only 3) where perfectly placed with great views, as long as you don’t mind sleeping in a charcoal wasteland with no place to hang… well… anything. Like your food bag from bears and the foragers of the night. And everyone would be able to waive at whomever was sitting on the box style community pit toilet, clearly visible from your tent door. I guess that is what you would call dinner and a movie in the Glacier National Park backcountry. At this point I started back and notice it was a long long way to the car.

The heat really got me on the return. With the big up/down swings that total gain for the day came to 3400 feet. Ouch. It took me more time going out and downhill that it did going in. My feet were so swelled from the hike and the heat that I drove most of my night shift in the shuttle with my shoes off. There is not a law (at least in MT) that requires shoes to be warn while driving.

My thoughts are mixed on this hike. Even before the big burn, I don’t think this would have appealed to me. Probably why the trailhead parking off the Going to the Sun Road (which I pass a dozen times a day), if often empty. Maybe one or two cars at best, and never for more than a day.

Although I did spot a Little Mermaid impersonator near the LMD shore in Apgar Village. I don’t think she could have pulled this off in even in her younger days. Come on lady, cover up for the sake of the kids. Or at least throw a tramp stamp on it and give that back bacon a little definition.