My son James and I decided to do an end-of-summer Alpine lake hike. I looked over some places to go and settled on Valhalla lake. Guide book said 11 miles round trip – NOT! My gps (and legs) registered 14.6 miles round trip, 1,466 feet ascended, max elevation 5,012 feet. I think the lake is 4,836 feet.

The hike itself is not too bad, but I would have preferred an overnight stay. 14.6 miles in one day is pushing it and limited the amount of fishing I got to do. The other thing that is tough about the hike is the first part (two miles) is actually a 200 ft drop. Which is fine, except on the return trip back? Those last two miles were the toughest of my day. That said…

I started fishing the northwest shoreline, one spot. There were fishing rising all over the lake, and unfortunately most outside my casting range. A float tuber or raft would have been killer to get out from shore! I started with a casting bobber and a dry fly, a royal coachman. But I doubt the flavor would have even matter. I started getting fish right away. Biggest was a skinny 10” fish in full spawning colors, beautiful! The lake, at least where I was, has an abundance of tiny fish.

I switched things up and cast a spinner which was not very effective. I then went back to the casting bobber and filled it with water and used a purple leach. Got a few on that. I moved to a small Montana nymph pattern and did really well on that. And that was it. Ate some lunch and hiked back out, back to the car at 3:30pm (started our hike at 8am). James agreed, those last two miles were brutal. But, it’s good to know even after not hiking this year I can still do a long hike, not that I want to do that many miles again! But I think I will try to squeeze in one or two more Alpine Lake hikes. Fall in the mountains can’t be beat!

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