Lake Kathleen

Drainage: Boulder
Approaches: Approximately 10.5 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead on Trail #27, with roughly 900 feet of climbing. All on trail.
Elevation: 7,591 feet
Fish: No FWP data.
Coordinates: 45.23984, -110.18820
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

Trail #27 up the East Fork of the Boulder from the Box Canyon trailhead at 6,693 feet. It is trail the whole way and about 900 feet of climbing spread over five miles, which makes this the gentlest stretch of country in this drainage.

We reached it two hours and twenty minutes out from the trailhead carrying nine days of food, which is about as heavy as our packs have ever been. Going light you will be there sooner.

The walking stays pretty and easy until the Columbine junction past the lake. After that it gets hard and slow.

The hike

Kathleen is small, under three acres at 7,591 feet, sitting right on the trail about five miles in.

Montana FWP has no entry for it, which means no depth, no acreage of their own, no fish record and no camping assessment. It turns up in the state's directions to other lakes further up — Trail #27 up the East Fork of the Boulder past Lake Kathleen — but never gets a page of its own.

It works as a turnaround for a day out of Box Canyon, and as the first water you pass on a longer walk into the Lake Plateau.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: Trail #27 the whole way from Box Canyon. No route-finding.

• Camping: We passed through in the middle of the day and did not scout it. Nobody has assessed camping here.

• Fishing: No FWP data.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.