Clayton Lake - Fishing!

It was going to be a hot day, the forecast said almost 90... what to do? Of course we still wanted to hike but it would be way too hard on our dog, Ron, in those temps. So we searched around for a lake... there are plenty that you can drive to but that isn't terribly appealing to us and would probably be very busy on such a hot day. Skimming over topo maps I noticed one just about 2/3 miles out from a trail head over by the Hungry Horse Reservoir, it looked like a decent size too. Having not spent much time hiking in that area yet I was excited and the hike sure didn't disappoint!

The hike is short, roughly 2.6 miles to hit the lake.

Leaving late morning the temps had already hit 70's in town. From South Kalispell it took almost two hours to get to the trail head, it got warmer the whole time, of course. At the shady trail head the thermometer read 77 dergrees.

On this particular day my roommate was going to float the river, thus leaving her pup without anything to do. We decided to bring him along to have a fun time as well, better yet he just so happens to be a wonderfully behaved dog.

Check out that handsome devil!

The hike in begins very mellow and flat, there's a ton of water on the way. Hitting small streams every quarter mile or so was a wonderful thing for this scorching day!

We were stopping every quarter to half mile in shade spots to give the dogs water and cool them down. There was a wonderful breeze every so often that couldn't have felt better on this day.

About a mile in the climb begins, it's a pretty gradual incline and there are plenty of switch backs. You're also greeted by the views an open uphill climb provides.

Rest break!

Another

And even more resting!

Now those are some Hot Dogs! Too corny?

Moving on...

Nice big creek! Aaah, the water is so cool and refreshing. Ron, however, was not keen at all to cross. The water was clipping along pretty quickly so I will admit that we caved and carried him part of the way across.

I can tell you that if you've never been to Montana, you're probably missing out. Even the less scenic hikes here can wow you!

 Yay for snow!

The lake is close and I can tell the dogs are getting excited.

The heat dissipates as you hit the lake, feels like 70 instead of 80 and the lake is COLD.

Oh ya, that's what I'm talking about! Look at this lake. This day we set out on a mission to find a good, cold lake and get some fishing in. Boy did we, we ended up spending about 7/8 hours at the lake. We enjoyed the dogs, got wet in the water, lost several lures, and of course fished.

 









The dogs had grand time and by the end of that day little Ron was finding any log or rock close to us and napping.

 




Caught a few keepers.

We'll definitely be coming back here to camp, the spots are terrific.

Evening sun at the lake.

The trail makes a loop around the lake.

Great hike, even better lake. I would highly recommend even for the less physically inclined. What seems really wild to me is that we didn't see anyone else the whole day! 

You can bet I'll be back at this lake ;)

Tired pups say, until next time happy trails!

For a full album with even MORE photos, Click Here

Cedar Lake - Swan Valley

6/23/14

Our first back country hike of the season! We were so excited as we scoped out our hike online using topographic maps and trail descriptions. So after some discussion Cedar Lake was decided on, an intermediate 7 mile hike.

Interestingly enough we ended up driving right past our turn, if course there's not even a glimpse of cell phone service down there. Fatty Creek Road is in no way marked from the highway and very easily passed but if you look hard enough you can see a bear warning sign a little ways down the road. From there it doesn't get much better as far as road signage goes, there's no sign until you get a around 6 miles in. Here it finally says FSR 10182 which promptly turns right and becomes FSR 10381, follow that all the way up and you hit the trail head.

 

The trail gets a little adventurous early on with a creek to wade and then some cliffs.

We ended up having to carry our little dog across the creek, he's our newly adopted French Bulldog! 

After about 1.5-2 miles of the trek in you come upon a no name lake, it's a cute lake and the trail took us right down by the shore of it so we could get a good view.

Continuing on we immediately met consistent snow... quickly turning in to very deep snow. Luckily the snow pack was hard enough that we were able to hike over it with ease... so long as we paid close attention not to step on any pockets. The trail was lost but only 1.5-2 miles of forest and mountain was between us and our coveted destination, Cedar Lake. We must keep going!

 Some rest was taken to ensure our smaller companions health and make him more comfortable. We also took time to snack on our power bars, jerky and trail mix which is an essential part of any hike! 

 
He even took a short nap. Now back on the trail...

We looked for a low point in the ridge in front of us an were greeted by a view when we hit the top. So close to the lake now! You can see it as soon as you hit the top although it's still a deceiving distance away.

We found our way down the other side of the mountain and straight to the tip of a rock cliff, while the view was gorgeous we did have to back track a small amount to make it closer to the actual lake shore.

It's still pretty early in the season for these back country hikes so the lake was rather high, not easily accessible and still encased by a ring of ice. Of course this makes it all the more pleasing to look at!

 For the panoramic view of the lake I would highly suggest following this link to get a better look. - Click Here -

However, here is a small glimpse:

 And one more photo of the splendor before I wrap up this trail expedition!

It is like that this trail would be considered intermediate but due to the amount of snow and loss of the trail it ended up being an advanced trek. 

DISTANCE 7.15 mi

ELEVATION GAIN 2182 ft

TOTAL TIME 04:58:43

AVERAGE SPEED 3.15 mph

MOVING TIME 02:16:15

MAX SPEED 7.43 mph 

Lincoln Lake - Glacier National Park

Early June we decided to embark on a little more challenging hike, not difficult but a test of endurance. This hike, in to a gorgeous mountain lake in Glacier National Park, starts off pretty strenuous but it mellows out quickly.

Woke up feeling great, got things done and hit the trail at a leisurely 10:30 am. It's a steep, unrelenting grade for the first 1.6 or so miles, you'll definitely want a trekking pole on this venture. I didn't bring one and coming down that slope on the 14th mile of the day was pretty dang rough.

Once you get to the top of the first part it starts looking more like this, there's so much vegetation in between the trees! 

We crossed over a lot of water, little streams and creeks.

Coming down one switchback there was an oh-so tempting log. We just had to walk out on it. Of course at this point we were going down... uh-oh, we thought.

This seems to be a very good hike to do earlier in the season, there was minimal mud even though it had rained the day before and the bugs were not bad at all either. 

About 2 miles in! Yay. The trail splits off and you can hike over to Fish lake if you really wanted to but we were determined to make it in to secluded Lincoln lake. Having been told it was a trail you would only want to back pack it felt like a challenge to make it a day hike.

Along the way we began to see signs of animal activity... including very fresh bear movement. 

The farther you go, the more looming the mountains are, they just seem to get taller and taller!

Getting closer, 3.6 miles left according to the sign, now we're starting to get excited! Over half way there.

The scenery on the trail just keeps getting better and better. We saw a few robins eggs along the way.

The rest of the hike was pretty mellow terrain wise.


We made it!

I haven't exactly perfected the surround shot but it's still cool!

The way back was tiring but there was some exciting things too... like this log!