I made a scouting foray into the Big Belt mountains a little less than a month ago and encountered 3' + of snow. Figured enough time had gone by so my wife and I decided to give some of our favorite lakes a try. The forecast looked poor, cold and lots of rain (which we need, so no argument from me), but we rolled the dice and went anyways.
The snow was almost all clear from the trail, the sun was shining and the wildflowers were tremendous, not a bad start.
Baldy Peak, three different lakes sit below it- all with trout
most of the trail (and the lakes) are on the north facing side of the mountain, so snow can linger sometimes even into August
we made good time to Hidden Lake and was surprised no one was there
but our destination was past there, another mile or so and several switchbacks later we made it to Grace Lake
for supper we brought fixings for fish tacos, so the first order of business was to break out the tenkara rods and get to catching trout!
the fish were cooperating, we kept four for supper, but landed and released dozens
now time to get busy and setup up camp, get the tent up, firewood gathered and prepped and get a bed of coals for the trout
fish tacos- trout, black bean and rice mix, cheese, cabbage, salsa all wrapped in a corn tortilla
we ate until we couldn't eat anymore, absolutely delicious!
about 8:00 the rain came and we headed for the tent, it rained almost all night and it looked like we were in for soggy morning and hike out
about 6:00 AM the rain quit and I hastily got a fire going and water boiling for coffee!
we made haste breaking camp; packed and ready to go
one quick selfie and on the trail
happy to report we never got rained on the trip out, as soon as we hit the pavement the rains started again in earnest
a little luck now again never hurts
The snow was almost all clear from the trail, the sun was shining and the wildflowers were tremendous, not a bad start.
Baldy Peak, three different lakes sit below it- all with trout
most of the trail (and the lakes) are on the north facing side of the mountain, so snow can linger sometimes even into August
we made good time to Hidden Lake and was surprised no one was there
but our destination was past there, another mile or so and several switchbacks later we made it to Grace Lake
for supper we brought fixings for fish tacos, so the first order of business was to break out the tenkara rods and get to catching trout!
the fish were cooperating, we kept four for supper, but landed and released dozens
now time to get busy and setup up camp, get the tent up, firewood gathered and prepped and get a bed of coals for the trout
fish tacos- trout, black bean and rice mix, cheese, cabbage, salsa all wrapped in a corn tortilla
we ate until we couldn't eat anymore, absolutely delicious!
about 8:00 the rain came and we headed for the tent, it rained almost all night and it looked like we were in for soggy morning and hike out
about 6:00 AM the rain quit and I hastily got a fire going and water boiling for coffee!
we made haste breaking camp; packed and ready to go
one quick selfie and on the trail
happy to report we never got rained on the trip out, as soon as we hit the pavement the rains started again in earnest
a little luck now again never hurts
. Thanks for posting this :thumbup: