Production Lake
Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: Goose Lake Jeep Trail — 6.5 mi, 5 on trail with 1.5 mi off-trail; 3,450 ft up, 700 ft down · From Paddle Lake — about 0.36 mi north-northeast
Elevation: 10,181 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.10269, -109.83315
Bugs: Minimal on our visit
Getting there
The documented approach is the Goose Lake Jeep Trail, six and a half miles with the last mile and a half off trail.
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
Day two was the only day we did not move camp. We left the tents at Splinter and walked a loop up through the high basins, and Production came about two hours in with roughly 750 feet of climbing behind us.
Production sits on the same open shelf as Paddle and Recruitment, close enough that all three are within a few minutes of each other once you are up top. The walking between them is easy by the standards of this country. Production is the odd one of the three: it sits lower than the bench around it, tucked directly beneath a rocky pitch.
That pitch is the thing to know about before you get there.
Production is 2.7 acres at 10,181 feet. FWP lists brook trout.
Tips & safety
The cliff above Production: you can walk directly between Paddle and Recruitment, even though the gap does not look promising when you are standing in front of it. Head back toward Recruitment immediately after going through. If you carry on toward Production from above instead, you come out on a 100 foot cliff over the water with no way down from there.
Fishing: FWP lists brook trout. Note that from the cliff side above the lake it is essentially impossible to get a line down to the water, so getting a cast in means finding your way around to the shore.
Navigation: no maintained path on this shelf. The three lakes sit close together, which makes the walking easy and makes it easy to end up on the wrong side of the wrong one.
Camping: Production sits at 10,181 feet below a rocky pitch, above treeline, so no timber and no firewood. The pitch gives some shelter from one direction, which is more than Paddle or Recruitment offer on the open bench above. At under three acres the shoreline is short. We came through in the late morning on a day loop 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.
