I woke up at 5:30 am and it was light outside! The sun was close to rising. Wow! Who would have thought? Then I shouldn't have been surprised as when I went to bed after 4 am the other week I thought I could see signs of a sunrise across the mountains to the NE.
Years ago when caring for dad I had a hot air balloon land in the pasture one morning. I wondered if they still flew. Yup. They do. You just have to get up early to see them.
The other morning I saw a strange bird checking out my well as I had left the door to the shed open. The bird was tall, kind of like a pheasant, but not quite. This morning I learned it was a female turkey. On the road, before crossing the river and going up the ridge, I came around the corner to find three turkeys. A male and two females. The male was large and prettier with his feathers all puffed out. He stood in the road while the two females were near each side of the road. He slowly moved out of the way unconcerned about my car.
Gary and Joyce were already at the Costco parking lot that was our meeting area. They noticed and commented on the cut in my leg. They told me I should have had stitches put in it. I told them, "What's another scar?"
Gary drove as he had a pickup and we would be driving on back country forest service roads.
Elk Mountain is in the Salish Mountains in the Talley Lake Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest. It is at the west edge of the forest where it meets the Kootenai National Forest to the west. On the following map, Elk Mountain is right of center, below the "C K" in "ROCKY".
I brought along my map of the Talley Lake area. After Joyce looked at the map she couldn't fold it correctly. After her failed attempts to fold the map it took me 5 minutes to figure out how to fold it correctly. I never had a problem folding the map before.
While I have never been to Elk Mountain, I have been on these forest service roads back in the summer of 2002 when I had a permit to gather firewood. A beautiful remote area, and one I wanted to revisit ever since.
We drove on forest service road 539 up and over Talley Lake and through Star Meadows to the west. The gray road indicates it is paved. When the road turned to gravel it became forest service road 113.
Cattle guards were across the gravel road at the boundary between the national forest and private lands. Cattle were on the road including calves who wanted to walk in front of the pickup and not move off the road. The cattle appeared to be on the national forest property and the guards were to prevent the cattle from wandering on the paved road and on private lands.
The Elk Mountain trail starts from forest service road 113 where it crosses the Brush Creek Divide. Joyce had hiked this trail 15 years ago when her then son-in-law was in charge of the trail crew that upgraded the trail. Joyce knew of another trail access. We took forest service road 2890 to the north and then Joyce watched for the spot she caught a side trail years ago. Forest service road 2890 was my main road when I gathered firewood.
Near Dunsire Pass is trail 258. That was the trail we needed. The black ) near the red 258 on the map indicates a gate across road 9528. We parked here and hiked trail 258 to trail 252 which is the Elk Mountain trail.
Trail 258 went a half mile up the mountain to the Elk Mountain trail. The trail was fairly steep and went through a forest of tall pines. The blow-down had been cut away across the trail. Part of the trail also had signs of burnt trees from a previous fire.
When we reached the Elk Mountain trail at the top of the divide a sign indicated it was only 6 miles to Elk Mountain. This route made the distance 6 1/2 miles instead of 10 miles.
At the top of the divide we could see the snow capped Cabinet Mountains to the far SW of Libby, MT. A long valley lay far below, which from this viewpoint snaked south and SW. Train tracks were at the bottom and zig-zagged and s-curved through the valley.
The mountain sides in the valley had rectangles and ovals where logging had been performed over the years. The different areas were slightly different colors and tree heights. It was a patchwork of logged areas. Logging roads could be seen here and there.
Logged areas, a few logging roads, and the train tracks - the only signs of man. No buildings or structures.
We came across a ruffled grouse who spread his tail feathers into a large fan and puffed up his chest so that you could see the white fur amongst the black coloring. He would make a sound similar to a drum pounding. He pretty much stood there and made this sound. After a bit we continued on the trail and he moved away from the trail as we passed. Later my neighbor Bob told me the grouse was acting this way because he had a nest nearby.
Later we saw several piles of what appeared to be wolf scat. Wolves are known to be in these mountains.
The trail went along the ridge from mountain to mountain. Then up to the top of one rocky mountain. We stopped for a few minutes to eat some snacks.
Then it was down the mountain side. What's with the downhill action? We were concerned we got onto a wrong trail. Later we realized we had to go downhill to cross over to another mountain.
At the bottom between the mountains we found a trail junction. Another trail went to forest service road 9528. This trail (182?) was not on my map but the forest service road was. This trail was 1/2 mile long. It was 2 1/4 miles to the lookout on top of Elk Mountain.
Up. Through a narrow "V" area with a pile of rocks on the the west side. The rocks were like ice that had been broken and tumbled into a pile. The rocks were angular and relatively flat. I wondered if one could fit them back together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Then up through forest. Earlier we saw mountain bicycle tire tracks on the the trail. The blow-down had been cut. While the blow-down looked to have been cut with a chainsaw on the initial 1/2 mile trail, the blow-down on the Elk Mountain trail looked to have been cut with a handsaw. The cut was finer and there was no piles of sawdust. Also, not all trees were cut. Some fallen trees looked very recent, others older. Some cuts were off trail where it was easier to cut with a handsaw as the tree was narrow where the cut was made. However, past this last junction and up to the Elk Mountain lookout few trees were cut. The past winter had more blowdown that normal, and reports have been that it was taking forest service workers and volunteers longer to clear trails than normal.
I read a recent letter to the newspaper where a woman complained chainsaws had been used to clear blowdown in the "Bob" (Bob Marshall Wilderness). This woman felt chainsaws violated the wilderness. I like wilderness, but I would put up with a chainsaw temporarily to speed up the clearing of trails. I have used both chainsaw and handsaw on trees that blew down on my property, and there is a big difference in time and effort.
A person can climb over or walk around a few trees, but when it gets to be dozens and dozens, it is too much. Also, most people walk around a fallen tree when they can and this is more damaging than the sound of a chainsaw. But, you know, some people are Nazis about the wilderness.
But I digress...
The Elk Mountain trail went through a mix of tall forest, open meadows, and alpine rocky terrain. The smell was a wonderful summer pine smell that hangs in the air on a still hot summer day.
We came across a patch of snow. Joyce filled her canteen with the snow.
1/4 mile from the lookout another trail (109) dropped west down the mountain and into the Kootenai forest.
At the top we found that the old wooden lookout had tipped and collapsed into a pile. The roof lay on the side and across part of the pile of wood. Gary and I climbed onto part of the lookout pile and found an old rusty table and a broom.
The cables that held cables holding the structure in place were gone but I found the old turnbuckles embedded in the rock that once held the lookout up when the wind blew.
What a view! What a wonderful job it was to man the lookout to watch for fires. A job I would have loved.
There was almost a 360 view. One mountain to the NE was just as tall.
Mountain range after mountain range in all directions. The only sign of man were train tracks and the occasionally far off rumble of a freight train in the valley far below. Otherwise it was quiet. Not even sounds of planes or jets, and certainly not cars. Very remote.
One could sit facing any direction and have a fantastic view. We were above the tree line as there were no trees at the top of Elk Mountain.
Cabinet Range. Whitefish Range. Swan Range. Columbia Mountain. Teakettle Mountain. Glacier Park snow capped mountains. The eastern mountains were hazy as the sun needed to be more to the west. I could not see Flathead Valley.
The air coming out of the west valley was a little cool. That was a little odd as this was an 80 degree day. It was warm a feet feet from the west side.
I found a fantastic rock. It was a yard long, and two to three inches thick. It was almost 2 feet wide at the widest point, narrowing to about a foot on each end. A perfect shape. The color was a nice green on one side and green with reds and oranges on the other. I so wanted to take this rock back with me but it was too big to carry 6 1/2 miles.
Instead I took two rocks from the "V" area of rocks. They had a colorful green lichen on one side. They were smaller but I still either needed two hands to carry them, I needed to balance them on my shoulder. At the first junction I left one rock as carrying both rocks was too much.
Later near the top of the middle mountain I found two thin green rocks. They were probably less than a inch thick and a foot by two feet in diameter. In one hand I carried my original rock and in the other hand these two. Gary offered to carry the two lighter rocks and initially I refused. "They are my rocks and my responsibility.'" Eventually I relented and let him carry them.
At a rest stop beneath the top of the middle mountain I swatted a yellow jacket on my leg. It fell to the ground stunned and before it could recover several ants rushed over and attacked it. Eventually three or four ants over powered the yellow jacket and carried it away. Gary, Joyce and I were like kids mesmerized by this struggle.
For a good portion of the trail, it was narrow. One had to walk with one foot almost in front of the other foot. This is hard to constantly do and my feet ended up angling on each side of the trail. Between that and the effects of walking downhill a lot - especially carrying a large rock - by the end of the hike my feet were sore. I got a blister on one heel. I was also tired from the 13 mile distance, and from carrying a large rock 4 miles. We were also all out of water by the time we returned to Gary's truck.
On the drive back to Kalispell we saw two deer standing near a small pond. No moose though. The cattle were all off the road and resting among the trees.
He is a photo of the larger rock I carried over 4 miles. The rock looks better in person.
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