Fish & Vann Lakes: On Wednesday, July 23th, I started a 3 day backpacking trip with the plan to visit Fish, Vann and Straight Lakes. I started at the Fish Lake trailhead and hiked the 6 miles into Fish Lake, which is in Idaho and the biggest lake in the Great Burn. After setting up camp I headed the 2 miles over into Montana to Vann Lake to do some fishing. I have been by Vann Lake several times over the years but never stopped long enough to fish. The fishing was good as I caught 5 or so Cutthroats in a short time on a fly. They were all 8-10 inches. It appeared that someone else had been fishing there in the past couple of days as there were obvious trodden grass at various fishing locations along the shoreline. The hike over from Fish is not bad; the trail is moderate most of the way and has a good tread.
There was a trail crew camped at Fish Lake, they were stationed out of Kelly Creek Ranger Station. They were working on the Bruin Hill Trail and other areas along the stateline that week. As it turns out Joelle G. from the GBCA was working with them this past week. Joelle is the Stewardship Cordinator and Backcountry Ranger for the organization, she is quite the hiking beast. It was nice to see her while I was out and be able to chat some about the burn.
Straight Lake: On Thursday I headed over to Straight Lake which is a couple miles North of the Siamese Lakes. I haven't been into this lake since 1999. I got going fairly early for me and was hoping to get there by noon, a distance of 5.5 miles. There are only un-marked game trails off the stateline in this area and I suspected that a trail existed at least partway to Straight Lake. I was relying on 2014 Google Earth Imagery; 2014 has great resolution and much of the Great Burn has not been updated since then. A lot can change over those years. I did well all the way to the Upper Siamese Lake, passing above W Fork Fish Cr Lakes #2 & #3 along the way.
It was going to be a hot day and there is no shade from the saddle above the Siamese till I got to Straight Lake. The biting flies were horrible along this stretch, I have been trying to move away from DEET products and the stuff I had just wasn't cutting it against the onslaught. I had to eventually put on pants which made the hike even hotter. I found the trail that traverses across hillside and goes past the lake for several miles. I thought there was a trail that angled down to the lake from the snowbank, and I was right. The whole trail was primitive but only at the start from the stateline was a bit tough to initially find. In any case I made it down to the lake just at noon. I thought that there would be a campsite somewhere around the lake but I never did find one; just a lot of brush and deadfall. I ended up finding a flat spot on the edge of the trees and pitched the tent there. Like a lot of places this summer the bugs were bad; mosquitos were managable but the flies were not. The fishing was good as I caught several 10 inch trout that evening. I went over to the sister pond by Straight Lake and it was bug factory.
I didn't see any game at the lake, but heard some hoofs several times during the night. In the morning I got up at light and was on the trail at 6:30 as I had a full day ahead to hike all the back to the trailhead, almost 12 miles. It is a mile from the lake to the stateline trail and is a hard go. The trail back to the snowbank is at a good grade the whole way with little relief. I stopped a lot to look and take more pictures as I don't know when I will be making it back.
I met a few folks heading into the Upper Siamese Lake for the afternoon. I took a long break at Fish Lake to cook lunch, change socks and take a break. One of the 4x4 people camped at the lake offered to give me a ride to the trailhead but I declined; probably should have accepted. I made the Swamp / Pollack Ridges Trail junction (2.5 miles) in an hour, but really found my stride on the last 3.5 miles and was back to the truck in just over an hour. It was a hot 3 days and I really suffered over the 27 miles that I covered, but all in all a great couple days.
