The hike into Lightning Lake was the most difficult hike I have ever taken. It was the first stop on a fishing trip that was to last several weeks. There was a fair amount of preparation for the hike into and out of Lightning Lake in one day. It would be a 14-mile round trip in some very steep and difficult terrain. I had been running steps for several months and my two nephews Mark and Chris had been jogging for about the same length of time. We all knew that the Lightning Lake day would be difficult. When the boys got into Billings they had to get fishing licenses and stopped to each get bear spray. There had been a bear attack that week but I hadn’t thought much about it. They had and wanted bear spray. It was early in the day and not a long drive to where we would stay.
We left our bags at a motel in Columbus and took off for the mountains. I wanted to see how long it was going to take us to get to the trailhead. We were going to hike into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and the trailhead was on the wilderness border. THe last ten miles of so was a 4-wheel drive road. It took an hour and a half to get to the trailhead and we walked down the trail a little way. The trail was good. The first part of the hike wasn’t going to be difficult. Little did we realize what was ahead of us the next day.
The next day looked like it was going to be nice, but at 4:00 AM it was hard to tell. There was a section of the 4-drive road with a steep drop-off. We went slow as the glare of out headlights showed a cliff on the left and nothing on the right. It was just beginning to get light when we got to the trailhead and started down the trail. The trail was along the West Fork of the Stillwater and after a couple of hours I kept a close eye on the far bank. We had to walk up Lightning Creek to get to Lightning Lake. That was the point we forded the river and began the steep climb up the mountain to the lake. Everyone I had talked with said it was going to be a difficult hike and it was. There was no trail, and it was steep with lots of downed timber. Very slow going and then we ran into a rock outcropping. All we could do was go around and then find our way back to the creek.
At 2:00 or so I began to see bear signs. There were claw marks on several trees and bear scat. A bear had marked his territory. We had been walking nine hours and had several more hours to the lake. The ground had leveled off a bit and the creek looked pretty good. I went over and took a closer look and saw fish holding in the current. We decided to fish the Lightning Creek. I tied on a Parachute Adams and got a fish on the second cast. It wasn’t a big Golden, but it was my first. We caught many Golden in Lightning Creek in an hour and headed down the mountain. It was a quicker trip out than it was coming in but it was dark when we got back to the trailhead. We had supper about midnight when we got back to Columbus. We never made it to Lightning Lake but catching Golden Trout in Lightning Creek still made for a great trip and one that will never be forgotten.
