Steve and Larry thought Baldy Mountain is on the Flathead Indian Reservation so we all bought Flathead tribal permits for hiking on their lands. However I suspect Baldy Mountain itself may not be on tribal land. We found two Indian reservation signs indicating the boundary and each time we saw the sign it was on the right side of the road when we were at a fork in the road. I believe the second time we saw the sign it was right of the right fork when we took the left fork.
Steve knew someone who lived in the Hot Springs area and could provide us with directions on how to reach the summit from Hot Springs. Apparently many people reach the summit from the Plains, MT side, but that meant a longer drive to reach Plains, then the trail head. The Plains, MT route *may* be a better way to go as the drive on forest service roads from the Plains side is suppose to be much shorter. Our drive on a forest service gravel road took one hour fifteen minutes to reach the trail head. The road had potholes and bumps. Jim's Prius car made it all the way to the trail head but he had to drive really slow so as not to bottom out.
Steve's friend took us on the road to the first major fork (take the right fork) out of Hot Springs. Then he gave us a map he drew and directions. One thing missing from the map is that there are two Indian Reservation signs. The reservation signs are wooden and old and faded and tucked in among the trees at forks in the road.
Larry had a GPS device and mapped our route.
Here are the elevation statistics from Larry's GPS data.
Another indication Baldy Mountain and the trail to it was not on tribal lands was this sign at the trail head. These are national forest signs put up by the Plains/Thompson Falls ranger district.
Also, from the sign you can see the distance to the top is 2.9 miles. I believe the trail to the top is shorter from the Plains side. But then if you want to go to Baldy Lake you would have to descend. Our route took us to the lake first (where we ate lunch) then up to the top of the mountain.
Here is the view of Baldy Mountain (the one with snow) from Hwy 28 just east of Hot Springs.
At the top of Baldy Mountain is the remains of the living quarters for the people who manned the old lookout.
This was the location of the old lookout (with the living quarters remains in the background).
On the east side of the mountain top is this stone structure. I imagine the former lookout residents gathered and arranged the rocks in their spare time from all the rocks in the area.
Looking down on Baldy Lake.
The temperature in the valley was around 90 degrees F. That accounts for the hazy views. Since we were just above the snow field I believe our temperature was in the low 70s F. Very pleasant temperatures on the hike. At lower elevations on the trail we were in thick trees and shade and it remained cool.
Here is a short writeup and photos from another web page: http://montucky.wordpress.com/2007/07/06/mount-baldy-the-trail/
More photos from our hike can be found at this link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/6043952426580945089?authkey=CPq8-IKEh9yuSA
2 comments:
I am going to explore this area this weekend. With the snow I'm sure the trail will be obscured and likely I will be off-route. Wondering if your friend still has the gps track available that I could use as a reference?
I don't know if he does. I haven't talked with Larry for quite a few years now.
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