Lake Surrender

Drainage: Stillwater
Approaches: Approximately 38 miles round trip from the Box Canyon trailhead, with roughly 3,100 feet of climbing.
Elevation: 8,728 feet
Fish: Cutthroat and rainbow hybrids, common and self-sustaining. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.29602, -110.03597
Bugs: Mosquitoes, just bad enough to be annoying.

Getting there

The plateau is the way in. There is intermittent trail from Lake Pinchot. The lake sits in the Flood Creek drainage but do not come up it — FWP calls that basically impassable, and their summary of this lake is that access is both long and difficult.

Box Canyon is 19 miles, West Stillwater 21.

We came from a camp at Dreary, passing Raven on the way, and were here a bit after ten in the morning.

The hike

There is really nice camping above the lake, and it was the best we had on nine days out. We stayed two nights. FWP puts the best sites near the inlet with plenty of firewood.

Surrender is 9.1 acres and 40 feet at the deepest, with a 13-foot average.

The fish are the same story as Raven, only more so. FWP's own words: the lake is full of colorful hybrids, cutthroat crossed with rainbow crossed with golden, and everything in between. Their 2018 sample took 12 of those averaging 12 inches and running to 14.9, plus 3 small pure rainbows. In 1997 they got cutthroat-golden and rainbow-golden crosses in the same nets.

That 2018 sample came from netting and angling both.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: Intermittent trail from Lake Pinchot. Do not come up Flood Creek.

• Camping: The best we found in nine days, on the ground above the lake. FWP puts the best sites near the inlet with plenty of firewood.

• Fishing: Colorful three-way hybrids to nearly 15 inches, and a few small rainbows. FWP caught theirs on a rod as well as in nets.

• Bugs: Mosquitoes, annoying rather than bad.