Krag Peak

Going through old photos and I put together another hiking post...

Sunday August 4, 2013 Patti, Gene and I hiked to the top of Krag Peak.  Tammy was in Minnesota attending a Tastefully Simple business convention.

Krag Peak 7510', is the highest of a trio of peaks that sit relatively close to one another in the northern Whitefish Range of NW Montana. Next to, and just to the south of Krag, lies Krinklehorn Peak 7411', next to and to the SW of Krinklehorn lies Deep Mountain 7406'.

Krag Peak is located up near Fortine and Eureka, Montana.

This is the route we followed:

From downtown Whitefish drive 43 miles north on Hwy 93. 
Turn right onto Grave Creek Road and drive 3 miles until reaching Stoken Road and turn right again. 
Proceed on Stoken Road for 1.47 miles until reaching Forest Service Road #7019 (Williams Creek Road) as it angles in from the right. 
Proceed on FS Road #7019 for 3.86 miles until reaching the parking area at the trailhead.

It was a beautiful day: not too cold, not too hot.  Mostly sunny with a few clouds, more clouds as the afternoon went on.  I would have lingered longer on top of the mountain but Gene and Patti were concerned about the clouds and whether we would be rained on as we had over 5 miles of hiking to get back to Patti's car.  We stayed dry.

To get to Krag Peak we hiked on Krinklehorn Trail.

Krinklehorn Peak

At the saddle north of Krinklehorn Peak, the Krinklehorn Trail continues down the other side.  To get to Krag Peak one must leave the trail at the saddle and bushwhack over a half mile up to Krag Peak.

The bushwhack doesn't look too bad, does it?

Yes, the bushwhack is steeper than it looks in the previous photo.

Krinklehorn Peak, from almost half way on the bushwhack to Krag Peak.

Krag Peak is in the distance.  Note the lower open area below the top of Krag Peak.  A later photo looking back to this spot was taken there.

Bushwhacking up Krag Peak.

Looking back to the open area at the top of that peak where I took the earlier photo.  Also, to the right of this small mountain is the saddle (behind the dead triple trunk tree) where we started our bushwhack.

From the top of Krag Peak.   Eureka Montana, and beyond Eureka is Lake Koocanusa (the small sliver of water just above the mountain ridge top right of center).

The next two photos are an area shown via Google Earth in the third image. 

Here are more photos from my hike:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/6082913728233310929?authkey=COOtx9CfvZ-FtAE


More info on hiking to Krag Peak: http://www.summitpost.org/krag-peak/747508

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Firefighter Lookout

On June 8, 2013, Tammy, Patti, Joyce, Gene and I hiked up to Firefighter Lookout on a nice Saturday. The lookout is located on the east side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir.  This was the only hike Tammy did when she lived here.

From Martin City, MT on the east side of the Hungry Horse Reservoir take FS road 38 for 15.3 miles to reach the trail head.

Tammy had a GPS app on her smartphone.  Here is the route from the lookout back to the trailhead.

Here is the trip's stats one way - from the lookout back to the trailhead.

The lookout -which is staffed in the summer with volunteers - was closed so we could not go all the way to the top of the structure.  Still, the views of the mountains and Hungry Horse Reservoir were great.

Firefighter Lookout

Firefighter Lookout

Firefighter Lookout

Great Northern Mountain, Mt Grant and Mt Liebig

Great Northern Mountain, Mt Grant and Mt Liebig

Great Bear Wilderness and Great Northern Mountain

Hungry Horse Reservoir

Great Northern Mountain and Hungry Horse Reservoir

Hungry Horse Reservoir with the Swan Range beyond the reservoir

Heading back to the trail head

During the hike back to the trail head Tammy lost her balance.  I was walking ahead of her and caught her before she fell down.  But she twisted one of her ankles.  She could still walk, but with a limp.  We found a stick for her to use to take some of the pressure off her ankle as she walked a  mile or two back to the trail head.

Walking stick and smartphone back at the trail head

On the drive back to Columbia Falls we passed Lost Mare Creek and we decided Tammy should soak her ankle in the very cold water to help with the swelling.  Tammy was reluctant as the water was very cold but Patti insisted Tammy soak her ankle to reduce the swelling.  I can handle cold but I couldn't put my foot in the water for as long as Tammy did.

The color shows where Tammy's foot was in the cold water.

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