Category Archives: Trail Reports

Trail 2 mostly cleared

Randy Kenyon and Bill Walker spent a few hours yesterday (July 2, 2015) almost clearing the first 2.5 miles of Trail 2.They’re leading a hike up this trail in just over two weeks, so a little maintenance was in order.

Trail 2, the Moran Creek Trail, runs about 3 miles (4.8 km) from a trailhead on Moran Basin Road (road 5241) to the top of Coal Ridge. It is the most popular route for visiting the old lookout sites along the spine of Coal Ridge.

There was a modest number of blow-downs across the trail, some minor and some requiring a bit of work.

That wasn’t too bad

A few required a lot of work, especially a big, old spruce that fell down across the trail at a long, shallow angle

This is going to take a while!

Cleared!

Randy feeling victorious

Downed spruce were by far the biggest nuisance.

Another fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into

Not quite out of the way yet

Unfortunately, we had to leave one monster as a (cough) step-over until we can get back up there with a chain saw. We’ll clear up this little detail in a few days.

This one needs a chain saw

Trail 4 complete

We did it. After a lot of effort spanning two full hiking seasons, Trail 4 has been located and walked from end to end. In the process, we learned a little history. Those of you who have been involved in this chronic project at one time or another will realize just how significant this is.

Here’s how it happened: A few days ago, we put together a very short notice hike in the Moran Basin area with the vague notion of maybe exploring some long-neglected tread. There were three of us (myself — Bill Walker, Debo Powers and Greg Evans). Since the other two had never been on Trail 2, we chose to go in on that route. See the Moran Basin Trails article for the layout.

After having lunch and enjoying the views from the remains of the old Coal Ridge lookout, we decided to keep pushing southest along Coal Ridge to see if we could locate the junction with Trail 4.

View Northeast from Coal Ridge

This is where things got interesting. We found the Trail 4 turnoff… and something else, as well. Right at the point where Trail 4 dropped down off the ridge, was the remains of another old lookout, predating the more familiar ruins further west. [Update: I am informed that this was more of an observation platform than a lookout. Still, it was a pretty neat find.]

Lookout Remains at T4 Junction

Old Ladder at Lookout Remains at T4 Junction

From there, knowing we were only about 1.25 miles (2 km) from known territory, we decided to try hiking out on Trail 4.

Ready to Go Northeast on Trail 4

As we hoped, the tread was still visible. Other than a few blow-downs, we had little trouble following the old trail.

The final highlight of the day was reaching the furthest limit of the previously explored section of Trail 4. As you can see, everyone was quite pleased with themselves.

Back in Known Territory – 01

Back in Known Territory – 02

We wrapped up the expedition without incident, walking out to where John Frederick was waiting to provide shuttle service (we radioed ahead once we made the Trail 4 decision).

A good day.

Guide to Mount Nasukoin hike

Over at the Mago Guide site, Patti Hart has posted a very nice, very detailed guide to the Mount Nasukoin hike (Trail 375) . . .

The hike to Nasukoin is without a doubt one of our favorites in the Whitefish Range of the Flathead National Forest. It is in fact not one but three hikes where the first stop is Link Lake, next on up to Lake Mountain, and finally all the way up to the top of Nasukoin, the highest point in the Glacier View Ranger district.

Antley Creek Trail is open

On September 25, Rich Clark rode up Antley Creek Trail (Trial 106) and cleaned up the trashed out section near the top. John Frederick and I trudged along in his wake, performing lighter weight clean-up in the lower sections. Bottom line: The trail is open, although it is going to need some more brushing out next year.

The Antley Creek Trail (yellow highlighting) is a handy connector between Trail Creek Road and the Cleft Rock Trail (Trail 13).

Map – Antley Creek – Trail 106

The upper end of the trail passes through heavy timber.

Antley Creek Trail Looking North

Removing Blow-downs on Antley Creek Trail

At Top of Antley Pass

The lower (north end) 4.3 miles of Antley Creek Trail is abandoned roadbed, becoming overgrown in places. It is still passable, but we will likely end up working on it next year.

Northbound on Antley Creek Trail Near End of Day

Hay Creek area trails exploration

Debo Powers’ article covers our recent activity in the west end of the Hay Creek drainage, but I thought it useful to include some additional material here.

Here’s a map of the two expeditions Debo mentions. The red track is the Trail 3-Trail 26 survey conducted on September 13. In yellow is the route of the successful September 18 search for the Trail 26-Trail 14 junction.

Hay Creek Explorations

Randy and I added about a mile to our part of the Trail 3 hike by spending some time investigating Hay Lake.

Hay Lake

Here’s Randy at the Trail 3-Trail 26 junction.

Randy at T26

And here’s a photo of the Hay Creek drainage from the west end that I took on an earlier expedition up Trail 26.

Hay Creek Drainage from West End

Moran Basin trails wrap-up: Trails 2, 4 and 14

August saw a lot of activity on the trails surrounding the Moran Creek Basin. See below for the GPS tracks. (The Trail 4 trace is roughly .25 miles short because I didn’t start recording immediately on the return trip.)

Moran Basin Trails

On August 11, we (Bill Walker, Jerry Costello and Bob Nelson) worked through the last of the downed wood and underbrush on Trail 4, encountering almost unrestricted ridge-top travel for the next half-mile or so. At that point — about 1.25 miles from the Trail 14 junction — we decided to carry our equipment out rather than continue.

We found a nice view of Cyclone Peak and Lake on the way back . . .

Cyclone Peak and Lake

A couple of weeks later, Jerry and I went round the north and west sides of the basin on trails 2 and 14. The tread started to fade a little ways past the old Coal Ridge lookout tower. We took a photo at our turnaround point and called it a day . . .

Trail 14 Limit of Travel

The next step is to walk and identify those last little bits of trails 4 and 14, possibly with two groups, one going in from each end.

North Fork Trails Association

We maintain and support the trail system along the North Fork of Montana's Flathead River