Little Scat Lake
Drainage: East Rosebud
Approaches: Approximately 22 miles round trip from the East Rosebud trailhead, with roughly 3,400 feet of climbing. No trail for the last 2 miles above Lake at Falls.
Elevation: 9,394 feet
Fish: Golden trout, common and stocked. Montana FWP.
Coordinates: 45.10881, -109.71298
Bugs: They exsisted more gnats than mosquitoes.
Getting there
Everything up to Scat applies here first, including going above the west shoreline of Martin rather than along it.
From Scat it is only about a quarter mile, but it took us 27 minutes. We scaled cliffs right by the water instead of walking around, and came back down the same way.
FWP cannot decide how far in this is. The text of their entry says 10 miles from the trailhead, and their own distance table in the same entry says 13.8. Our track put it around 11.
The hike
Little Scat is 5 acres and 1 foot deep on average, 3 feet at the deepest. That is shallower than Elk Lake down at the bottom of the drainage, at 3,000 feet more elevation.
The stocking history explains why it is here. FWP planted goldens in Little Scat specifically to let them wash downstream and seed Scat and Martin. Their current note says the plan should change, that the chain should be replanted into Scat or Martin instead, because Little Scat is too shallow. They have still put 500 fish in twice, in 2012 and 2017, with another 500 scheduled for 2029. They surveyed it once, in 1990, and caught nothing.
We had nothing rising and caught nothing.
Tips & safety
Navigation: No trail from the Falls Creek crossing on. Above Martin's west shoreline, then Scat, then the cliffs.
Camping: FWP calls it no adequate camping with some firewood available. We thought there might be a spot between Scat and Little Scat but did not use it.
Fishing: Stocked goldens that FWP itself doubts the lake can hold. Nothing rising for us.
Bugs: They exsisted more gnats than mosquitoes.
The cliffs: Right at the water between Scat and Little Scat. We went up them and back down them rather than around.
