Hunger Lake (Finger Lake)

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Goose Lake Jeep Trail — 4.5 mi, 3.5 on trail with 1 mi off-trail; 1,150 ft up, 830 ft down · Lady of the Lake Trail — 5.5 mi, 4 on trail with 1.5 mi off-trail; 1,700 ft up, 400 ft down · From Splinter Lake — about 0.3 mi east

Elevation: 9,755 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.08904, -109.84854
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

Two documented approaches. The Goose Lake Jeep Trail is the shorter of them at four and a half miles with the last mile off trail, climbing 1,150 feet and losing 830. From Lady of the Lake it is five and a half miles with the last mile and a half off trail, and 1,700 feet of climbing.

We came on a thru hike that started at the Lady of the Lake Trailhead and exited at the Clarks Fork end of the Beaten Path. Two vehicles, one dropped at the exit before we started. Without a shuttle you are walking the whole thing twice.

The hike

Finger came at the end of our first day, in the last light. It sits about three tenths of a mile east of Splinter, tucked slightly lower down the bench, and the walk between them is short enough to be an evening errand rather than a trip.

The approach is entirely off trail. From the Splinter outlet you follow the fall line down into the upper fringe of the Sky Top Creek drainage until the shoreline comes up.

Finger is 5.4 acres at 9,755 feet. FWP lists brook trout, which makes it the closest fishing water to a Splinter camp by a wide margin.

Some maps and books list this lake as Hunger Lake.

Tips & safety

• Useful landmark: the outlet drains straight into Sky Top Creek near the confluence with lower Aero Creek. That makes Finger a reliable point to fix your position against when you are reading your way around the lower edge of the plateau.

• Fishing: FWP lists brook trout.

• Navigation: no trail on any part of this. Following the fall line down from the Splinter outlet is what keeps it simple, and it is the same handrail that gets you back.

• Camping: Finger sits at 9,755 feet on a bench just below the Splinter shelf, in scattered timber rather than open rock, so there is some wind shelter here that you lose as soon as you go higher. The ground is a mix of duff and rock and at five and a half acres there is a reasonable amount of shoreline. We came down in the evening without scouting sites, so take this as terrain description rather than a report on what is available.

• Thru hike logistics: this is point to point, not a loop. Your ride has to already be parked at the exit trailhead.