Crazy Peak Adventures

Currently in no particular order

• Batteries
• Bear-spray
• Clothes, there could be snow and it could be hot
• Bug-spray
• First-aid kit
• Sunscreen
• Camera
• Camp stove
• Chap Stick
• Drugs – allergy, pain relief
• Fire
• Fishing gear
• Fishing License
• Fuel
• Headlamp or small flashlight
• Map
• Mess kit
• Mug
• Multi-tool and or knife
• Plate
• Radio
• Rain gear
• Rope
• Saw
• Sleeping bag
• Sleeping pad
• Snacks
• Sunglasses
• Sweatshirt
• Tent
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• TP
• Utensils
• Water bottle and water bladder
• Water filter
• Meals
• Hot chocolate
• Powdered Gatorade
• Dry sack
• Hat
• Sandals or water shoes
• Extra socks
• trekking poles

Aero Lakes would be more of a trip where we would set up a base camp and day hike to various areas. It would also be more like a 5 day trip instead of a 6 or 7 day trip.

I will be adding some notes to this post shortly.

I just wanted to jot down some ideas for planning our 2011 Beartooth trip, The Lake Plateau. This is where I would like to go this year. I think the destination is still open, so I will be looking at some other possibilities as well, but based on what I’ve been reading so far this sounds like an amazing trip.

Maps

Beartooth_lake_plateau GPS File

Topo Map, Very large version when you click

Lake Plateau with rough path, Google Earth

Day 1: Lake Columbine

• Stocked with Grayling in 2007 – fishery should be self-sustaining
• 9.3 miles from trail head (longest day)

Day 2: Pentad Lake Area

• 3.2 miles from Columbine to Pentad Lake
• Area Lakes: Martes, Sunken Rock, Cirque, Jordan, Sundown, Un-named, Pentad, Favonius,  Mouse Lakes
• Martes Lake, Biggest Cutts in the country. Check out the photo in Marcuson’s Book
• Sunken Rock Lake: Fish spawn in the outlet so down stream would be better fishing. Goldens
• Cirque Lake: Fishless
• Jordan Lake: Cutts, lots of action and fun to fish
• Sundown Lake: Cutts, Trophy potential, scheduled to be stocked in 2011
• Un-named: Cutts and cut-golden hybrids: Similar to Pentad
• Pentad Lake: Cutts and bows 9-14 good camping
• Favonius Lake: 10-13 inch hybrids
• Mouse Lake: Cutts stocked in 08

Day 3: Pentad Lake Area

Day 4: Wounded Man Area

• 6.5 miles from Pentad
• Lakes in this Area: Diaphanous, Pinchot, Wounded Man, Owl, Pipit, Rainbow, Un-named Lakes
• Lake Diaphanous: Crowded, Rainbows struggling
• Lake Pinchot: Rainbow, Golden, Cutt hybrids, Good Camping, popular
• Wounded Man Lake: Cutts and bows, up to 10 inches and lots of them, lots of camping spots
• Owl Lake: 10-11 inch cutts
• Pipit Lake: Cutt hybrid up to 16 inches avg 11, Nice camp spots
• Rainbow Lakes: cutts and bows avg 11 or 12 inches
• Un-named Lakes: Similar to Pipit

Day 5: Wounded Man Area or Rainbow Lakes Area

• Rainbow Lakes are ~2 miles from Wounded Man Lake

Day 6: Horseshoe Lake or Upsidedown Trial Head

• Horseshoe Lake is ~5.5 miles from Wounded Man Lake or 3.5 miles from Rainbow Lakes Area
• Horseshoe Lake: 10-13 inch cutts but may get winter kill (shallow), camping is okay
• Mirror Lake: 9-10 inch bows
• Trail head is about 10.5 miles from Rainbow Lakes

Day 7: Upsidedown Trail Head

• 7 miles from Horseshoe Lake

Additional Notes:

Blog I found about a group of guys that did a similar trip in 2010: http://chrisroane.blogspot.com/2010/08/lake-plateau.html
PDF of the Beartooth Lakes Survey: http://fwpiis.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=42485
Like to the Guide from trails.com http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGR027-395

Knife Edge from Iddings Peak

Iddings Peak

We have reached the saddle that we had set in our scopes from the ridge between Granite and Blue Lakes. It was very windy and a little cold. We reviewed our map and decided to walk down the other side of the saddle about 150 yards to reveal Pear Lake, and to take a closer look at Iddings Peak. It is here, noticing a crevasse up stream from Pear, that we contemplated the possibility of reaching Smeller Lake from this side.. We both made note of it and put it on the schedule for our next visit here.

We spent a good amount of time looking over Iddings, and its descending knife edges, as well as contemplating our next treip to the Crazy’s, and the possibility that Pear contained fresh mountain-lake trout.

Two friends normally separated by 700 miles set out to conquer a trail and a lake that has been in their scopes since childhood. Crazy Lake, resting below Crazy Peak, the highest point in the Crazy Mountain Range at 11,209 feet, was their destination. The actual mileage is nothing spectacular, about 4-5 miles. But the trail stops less than half way and the terrain beyond that is very rugged and, as we now know, dangerous. The two will be crossing a sheer rock ridge of about 10,500 feet before making the decent to the lake. Here is the adventure they will never forget.

Matt by Big Timber Creek

Brad by Big Timber Creek

Blue and Thunder Lakes

Standing on a ridge between Granite Lake and Blue Lake we look ahead to where we leave the trail and head for the ridge line. We sat down here and had a few second thoughts as we looked over the huge mountain before us. We both stood up at about the same time and could have walked in either direction, but chose to forge forward into the unknown.

Looking Back at Granite Lake

The Saddle in the upper left is where we are headed.

An old cabin between Blue and Granite Lakes

Crazy Lake turned out to be much less of a hike and more of an adventure then every imagined. It has lead to many more adventures, and the name of this site. Now when heading out into the mountains the group on individuals that you will see posting to this site all look for adventures, much more than a trail with a destination. Two friends, normally separated by 700 miles, set out to conquer a trail and lake that has been in their scopes since childhood. Crazy Lake, resting below Crazy Peak, the highest point in the Crazy Mountain Range at 11,209 feet, was their destination. The actual mileage is nothing spectacular, about 4-5 miles, but the trail stops less than half way and the terrain beyond that is very rugged and as we now know, dangerous. The two will be crossing a sheer rock ridge of about 10,500 feet before making the decent to the lake. Here is the adventure that they will never forget.

Here is our path. My gps unit cut out a couple of times and I think ran out of batteries once so I had to fill in a few very small gaps. It did really well overall. I currently use a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx. This map is a USGS map with some shading added.

Here is what the path looks like on Google Earth.

Here is a low resolution copy of the book that resulted from our 2010 trip into the Beartooth Mountains.

Smoke on the Water, A Beartooth Mountain Adventure

I hope that you will find the information on this site useful, and I hope that you will join me in sharing your adventures. Think of this site as a place that you can plan adventures, share your experience, and present it in its entirety so that others may benefit and find some of the same enjoyment that you did.