Ran the Lily Basin trail with a friend on 8/9. FR 48 was actually in great condition. There were a few large potholes, but they were spaced out quite nicely, haha. The rest of the road was dry and dusty (as expected), but in good shape. As others have noted, follow WTA's directions to the TH.
The trail itself was great - very runnable. Smooth, soft, single-track for the first 3-4 miles. A tad bit overgrown, but not too bad. Once you break out of the trees, the views get spectacular! First, Tahoma with Packwood Lake below. Crossing through the notch, the views open to the south and the topography is just stunning. Big open cirques, meadows, jagged peaks and still views of Tahoma! The trail gets rocky at times, but overall very pleasant! Once you reach the junction with the Angry Mtn trail, the trail drops about 400 ft in .5 miles to the lake. We chose, instead, to sit up top, enjoy the views, have some food and then head out the way we came. We only saw one other group of 2 backpacking - otherwise, solitude!
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