Travels with Burnie: Cobalt Lake Hitch

Cobalt Lake from Painted Teepee ridge.

Cobalt Lake

One of the best toilet views
around, although not much privacy.

Our tiny kitchen

Our second hitch was to Cobalt Lake, up a small valley that veers south off of the main Two Medicine Valley. It's a pretty little lake that sits beneath Painted Teepee Peak (or Tainted Peepee as it's called in the park). There's a public camp spot at the lake but we stayed down the valley at bit at a little unnamed lake. Generally the hitch camps are not at the public campgrounds and are more like secret little spots in the woods. One of my favorite things about the hitches is that they usually have a hand dug hole with a wooden "toilet" over the top that serves as the outhouse. These are al fresco affairs with unparalleled views of the surrounding wilderness. Not the best if it's raining or snowing but you get used to it.

Duncan along the Painted Teepee ridge.

Approaching Painted Teepee

Daylight lasts forever this far north so if we have the energy at the end of the day, sometimes we do some peak bagging. This trip we shimmied up Tainted Peepee, which we climbed from the lake as an off-trail, very steep climb that is only technical (class 3-4) on the ridge at the very top, where you have to shimmy along a number of precarious spires. You can also follow the Two Medicine Pass trail up to the ridgeline and then turn off to the northeast and follow the ridge out to the peak but the hike distance is significantly longer if you follow the trail.

The hill side heading up to Painted Teepee

Duncan and Nate at the top of Painted Teepee

A couple of days later, the boys decided to climb Mount Rockwell but I had my eye on Grizzly Mountain, which had been looming in the distance as we worked on the ridge. There's a trail from Two Medicine Pass most of the way to the peak but the last 1.5 miles or so are off-trail, which is fine because you can see where you are headed the entire time. It's a very steep scramble over scree with some small cliffs at the top that you have to pick your way up.