Thiel Lake

Drainage: Clarks Fork (MT)
Approaches: From Hidden Lake, approximately 1 mi west through the outlet; roughly 380 ft down
Elevation: 9,233 feet
Fish: Brook trout (FWP)
Coordinates: 45.00747, -109.64628
Bugs: Minimal on our visit

Getting there

This was day two of a four day trip out of Clay Butte.

Day one ran approximately seven and a half miles, over the plateau past Native and the small lakes beyond it, then up onto the shelf past Lonesome, Abandoned and Gus before dropping to Hidden Lake, where we camped.

From Hidden the way on runs through the outlet. The cliffs there have to be scaled right at the waterline and the rock is slick. It goes and it is not technical, but one of us came out of it wetter than intended. Take packs across carefully.

Past the outlet it is roughly a mile west to Thiel, losing about three hundred and eighty feet.

The hike

The outlet is the whole problem. Once you are through it the ground opens up and drops steadily west, and the walking is easy the rest of the way to the lake.

Around sixteen acres at 9,233 feet, running about thirteen feet on average and thirty-five at the deepest. The shoreline vegetation is heavy and comes right down to the water in places.

Tips & safety

• Navigation: the outlet scramble at Hidden is the only real obstacle on this stretch. Everything after it is straightforward.

• Camping: FWP records nice campsites here with plenty of firewood available.

• Fishing: brook trout (FWP), abundant and self-sustaining. Planted in 1937 and again in 1940 and left alone since. Worth knowing where they are: the 2014 survey took thirty-three fish by angling and twenty of them came from the small pond in the outlet rather than the lake itself. The fish ran under eight inches on average, the biggest just over ten. A 2003 survey found fewer and smaller.

• Bugs: minimal on our visit.