Snowy morning

On the 43rd day…

Yesterday, western Montana tied a record that has stood for 116 years; 42 days without any measurable precipitation. Finally, in the middle of last night, there was an hour of good rain!

At higher elevations it was celebrated a little differently.

On trail 340 in the Baldy Mountain roadless area.

Hiking the Baldy trail (3)

The last set of photos from the July 5th hike into the Baldy Mountain roadless area.

East

Northeast

Lunch room

Due North

West

Back down the trail

Hiking the Baldy trail (2)

The next two posts consist of more photos from the Baldy Mountains roadless area. It’s a beautiful area and I hope it will not be destroyed by exploitation or by those who want to open it up for off-road ATV’s. (They call it “access”.)

Northwest

At the base of the old lookout

South

North

Hiking the Baldy trail (1)

In the 1930′s when the Forest Service created pack trails to the peaks upon which fire lookouts were built they often encountered places where it was just too darned steep to hike straight up. When the incline exceeded a pitch of 15 to 20%, switchbacks were built to make the trail a little easier for hikers and pack stock to negotiate.

The top mile or so of USFS trail 340 to the Baldy Mountain Lookout is like that and that mile of trail contains 13 switchbacks as it climbs from about 6,400 feet to 7,464 feet. These photos were taken as the sun came up along that section of trail last Thursday morning and I have added the time of the morning at which each was taken just for the heck of it. I thought someone might find them interesting.

5:42 AM

6:04 AM

6:14 AM

6:29 AM

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6:30 AM

6:34 AM

6:38 AM

6:42 AM

6:43 AM

7:08 AM. This mound of rocks at the very top was the base upon which the lookout cabin was built in about 1934.

Morning at Baldy Lake