In the image on the right, Lagoni Lake and Finger Lake are located in the brown "8" section. "8" indicates the LeBeau Research Natural Area within the Tally Lake Ranger District within the Flathead National Forest. No motorized vehicles are allowed in the "8" area - which explains why you don't see any green national forest roads in this area.
The brown and white areas are part of the Flathead National Forest. The grey areas are private land. The red line is Hwy 93.
Finger Lake is located at the end of Trail 803. Lagoni Lake is not named. The blue words listing "Upper Stillwater Lake" should say "Lagoni Lake". Becky, the Tally Lake ranger I spoke with, never noticed the error until she went over the map with me to tell me where Lagoni Lake is located.
We did not hike to Hole in the Wall Lake as we missed the sign and forgot about it.
Initially we thought of hiking the mountains behind Joyce's ranch, and while I enjoy hiking those mountains, I suggested we hike somewhere different this time to get some variety and go somewhere new. I called the Tally Lake Ranger Station to ask which trails were good and which had snow. Pretty much all the higher trails still have snow on them. I got four or five recommendations of lower elevation trails.
Everyone but me had hiked Lagoni Lake and Finger Lake. The others hiked it last Spring. They decided they wanted to hike it again. So off we went.
On the drive to the lakes we stopped briefly at the Tally Lake Ranger Station to get a map of the district. Gary had no map, and my map was from 1971. A lot has changed since then! Back then there were more roads and no restrictions on motorized access.
The short road from Hwy 93 to the trailhead at the Upper Stillwater Lake campground is a single lane gravel road. It is drivable in a car as Joyce had no problems. She did have to drive slow and navigate around a few large rocks embedded in the road.
At the trailhead there were three or four large boulders placed in what formerly must have been a drivable road to Lagoni Lake.
It is a one mile walk to Lagoni Lake. The trail is mainly flat and wide. Along the trail the trees are fairly tall. Lagoni Lake appears to be a relatively shallow lake surrounded by trees. The water is very clear as I easily could see the trees and branches on the lake bottom some distance out.
The trail arrives at the lake about in its middle. The trail continues on a short distance above the head of the lake where it turns to marsh. Possibly the trail was made by failed attempts to walk around the lake. The lake near the head is so shallow the bottom is a green color.
It was very quiet. The only occasional sound was a distant rumble from the trains that passed in the distance. The Burlington Northern and Amtrak train tracks were between our location and Hwy 93.
On the way back to the trailhead we took a side trail to Finger Lake. This trail was not as wide as it was not a road in the past. This trail was 1.5 miles in length and gained an elevation of 300 feet. Large rock outcroppings were here and there along the trail. At one point after we did a bit of a climb I took a path to an overlook of a small valley.
Usually I have a good sense of direction, but not this time. My sense of direction got messed up during this hike. To me the lake felt like it was going NE to SW when actually it went NW to SE. What felt like the head of the lake was the foot.
We arrived (apparently) at the lake's foot. The lake is very long and narrow and is mostly lined with rock cliffs. Occasionally the terrain went down to the lake. The trail ended at one of the high rock cliffs.
Looking over the edge of the cliff the clear water showed a few spots where the rock extended a short ways out from the cliff, else it was straight down. If one was brave (or foolish!) one could dive from the cliff into the deep water. Gary and I scrambled down a crack in the rock and reached the water. It was cold!
At the foot of the lake was a humongous beaver lodge. It towered over the water. The foot of the lake was too wide to dam so the beaver built this large lodge. We could see the half dozen trails through the watery grass where the beaver swam and brought branches to add to his lodge.
We all sat on the rock above the lake and ate our lunches while enjoying the view. While the weather forecast predicted sunny skies, the sky was mostly cloudy. By the end of our lunch some openings occurred and we occasionally saw blue sky and the sun shone of parts of the lake. I need to get a camera!
A man was fishing from an inflatable boat while his friend was fishing from the shore. After a short while the man in the boat hooked a rainbow trout and reeled it in. It wasn't big but he kept it. After catching the fish he and his partner packed up and left to return the next day for more fishing - or so they said. It was so quiet we could hear most of their conversation even though they were below and away from us.
After our lunch we walked on a trail that bordered the lake for a half mile or so. It went to another rock outcropping further up the lake. From this outcropping we still could not see the head of the lake. The lake appeared to curve around another rock outcropping, to which the trail did not go.
The lake must be popular as along the lake we saw a half dozen old campfires lined with gathered rocks.
From the second rock outcropping we saw two amazing diving ducks. Loons? When we first noticed them we initially thought they were fish that were surfacing. All the time we were along the lake many fish jumped out of the water. These ducks would be above the water for less than a minute then would dive and swim underwater. They were underwater more than above. The water was so clear we could follow their progress as they swam on the other side of the lake from our rock cliff outcropping. It was amazing at how long and far they could swim underwater.
During the walk back I began to find interesting rocks and so I ended up with a half dozen interesting ones. I got all but one in my small backpack. The last one I had to use two hands to carry. My backpack was starting to feel heavy by the time I got back to the car.
From the car we did a short walk down the road to look at Upper Stillwater Lake. This lake is far larger. Along the one side were the railroad tracks. No trains passed by while we were at this lake. At the head of the lake was another large beaver lodge. A few picnic tables overlooked the lake.
We hiked about 5 miles. Along the way people kept finding interesting and odd items.
- a good folding knife (by Gary)
- small binoculars whose lens were cloudy (by Bill)
- a round handle to something (by Gary)
- camp stove regulator (by Joyce)
- a hinge (by me)
- short piece of rope (by me)
- fish hook and line (by Joyce)
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