Hermit Lake (Clarks Fork, MT)

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 47 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead. Off trail beyond Lake Surrender.
Elevation: 10,034 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.26864, -110.02324
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Trails to Lake Surrender, then cross-country southeast past Needle, Comet and Asteroid. No trail from Surrender on.

Hermit is the far corner of that basin and the highest thing in it. We reached it a little over four hours out from camp, and it was the turnaround of a nine-and-a-half-hour day.

The hike

Hermit sits at 10,034 feet, which puts it 580 feet above Comet and nearly 700 above Needle, and makes it the only lake in this pocket over ten thousand.

It is small, about three acres.

Montana FWP has no entry for it, so there is no depth, no acreage of their own, no fish record and no camping assessment.

Lake Vengence sits a tenth of a mile east, close enough that we were at both within three minutes.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: No trail from Lake Surrender on. Southeast past Needle, Comet and Asteroid, climbing the whole way.

• Camping: We turned around here and did not scout it. Asteroid has the camping FWP calls good, half a mile back down.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.