Cimmerian Lake

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 39 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with roughly 3,100 feet of climbing. All on trail.
Elevation: 8,594 feet
Fish: Rainbow trout, rainbow-golden hybrids and Yellowstone cutthroat, all common and self-sustaining. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.29573, -110.02713
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

The lake sits on Flood Creek, and FWP's advice about that drainage is to avoid it — near impassable. Come down to it from the plateau instead. Box Canyon is 19.5 miles, Initial Creek 21.5.

We walked to it from a camp at Lake Surrender, four tenths of a mile west, and it is on trail from there. Twenty-five minutes.

There is a lot of downed timber along that stretch. One of us stepped up onto a log to get over it rather than going around, and stepping off pitched him further forward than he expected. He came down on a rock and strained his ankle badly enough that he could not carry on, and hobbled back to camp while the rest of us went on to Bill. He was tent-bound until dark.

Go around the logs.

The hike

Cimmerian is 18.8 acres and 30 feet at the deepest, with a 13-foot average.

FWP calls it a good fishery with a lot of colorful hybrids, and there are three populations in it — rainbows, rainbow-golden crosses and cutthroat, all self-sustaining. Their 2018 crew sampled with a rod and found nice sized fish that fought hard: 14 of them averaging 10.8 inches and running to 16.7. Back in 1986 they got rainbows to 18.4 and hybrids to 17.

Fish occupy the creek as well as the lake.

There are some campsites and plenty of firewood.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: On trail from Lake Surrender, four tenths of a mile east. Do not come up Flood Creek.

• Camping: Some sites with plenty of firewood.

• Fishing: Three self-sustaining populations and fish to nearly 17 inches. FWP caught theirs on a rod and singled out how hard they fought. The creek holds fish too.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.

• Downed timber: Hundreds of logs across the trail. One of our party stepped on one instead of going around and strained an ankle badly enough to end his trip.