About three weeks ago I visited Cougar Peak and the Cougar Peak lookout on the way to a trail head that leads beyond it. The lookout cabin there has recently been restored and is part of the Forest Service Lookout rental program I understand. Although there is a good single track road up to the peak, the lookout sits right at the edge of the Cataract Roadless area about 22 miles northwest of Thompson Falls, Montana in the Lolo National Forest at an elevation of 6694 feet and has nice views of the Clark Fork River valley and the surrounding Lolo National Forest.
The current lookout cabin is an L4 model, built in 1952 to replace an older one from the 1930’s. It is in very nice shape now and I’m glad it has been restored to provide an insight into what those old L4’s were like.
Thursday evening, soon after setting up a very simple camp for the night at the trail head for Seven Point Mountain, the “blue” moon started to appear over a ridge top behind me. Even though I had neither a tripod nor a long lens I couldn’t pass up a try at a shot of an old dead snag on the ridge in silhouette against the moon. I caught a Halloween Moon!
