I found this hike through a patient of ours who took a little time quizzing me on where I've been so far. He's out there hiking a lot and he threw out so many good ones, but nothing new...until he hit on this one. I was so excited!!! After giving me the basic instructions, I got home and googled it, and did it the next week end.
So, driving instructions first: Coming from Missoula, you head west on I-90 to exit 25. Get off there, then get back on the Interstate east bound, and get off on exit 26. Don't know why they don't have an exit 26 from the west bound lane, but there it is. It's a funny little circular exit that just turns around and puts you back on the Interstate if you don't get off in time. You head straight up the road for a little over 6 miles. Don't take the first right, right off the exit. This road is an easy, well kept gravel road. The trail head is right on a switch back and well signed. There were only 5 cars there on a beautiful week end, so it's not a busy trail at all. And one of the hiking groups was just getting back to their car when we were parking.
The trail goes through an old cedar forest. It was something out of a fairy tail, so pretty. And the first mile or so is super easy. The next mile and a halfish is a different story. Pretty stinking steep! In the middle of this part, there is a fork in the trail. There's a sign that points towards the lakes, but it still wasn't completely clear to me because of it's positioning, and the fact that it didn't show at all what the other trail might go to. So stay on the right fork to get to the Lakes. I believe the other trail takes you back to the access road, and I'm not sure, but it may take you all the way to Idaho, from what I've been told.
Once the trail starts to even out, the rest of the hike is mostly not hard, depending on what you do. When you come upon Hazel Lake, you can see it's a straight hike down to the lake. Very steep. We decided to just keep hiking to Hub Lake, as I was thinking I'd hit Hazel on the way back. Once you get past Hazel, which is a fairly big mountain lake, the trail gets a little bit steeper, but not too bad. Then it turns down for a little bit, and before you know it, you're at Hub Lake. The mountains around it were like giant walls keeping the lake in it's bowl. After hiking it, we were told there was an old mine, if we had kept on the trail and walked to the other side of the lake. I'm pretty disappointed I didn't know that before. I think it's right behind me in one of the pictures.
After hanging at the lake for a bit (there WERE fish jumping, but Jeff forgot his fishing pole for some ridiculous reason) we headed back. I wanted to take some pictures of Hazel Lake. However, I slowly talked myself out of it. The little hike down to Hub lake was steeper than I thought, and I knew the trail down to Hazel was WAY steeper and longer. Not out of the question, but I haven't been hiking as rabidly as I have in years past, and I was a little tired of all the steepness, and honestly, I had and IPA calling my name REALLY loudly.
As I am writing this now, and just uploaded all my pictures, I realize I didn't take nearly as many as usual. Sorry, out of practice, I guess. In the end, it was less than a 7 mile round trip hike, with only 1706 of elevation gain. That's quite a bit different from what I had read, which told me it was more like 7.2 miles RT with about 3500 of elevation gain. I'm not sure where that came from, but as you can see by my navigation app, which I trust indubitably, that is not so.
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| My little piggies are in the water! |
