This is a pretty easy hike, with some elevation gain. My watch clocked 1070 ft of gain in 2.6 miles from where we parked the truck.
Exposed Trail
Turner Mountain, Montana | 29 August 2021
Turner Mountain in northwest Montana is approximately 22 miles north of Libby on Pipe Creek Road #567. Turner ski area opened in 1961. It is currently active with a mile long double chairlift with 2100’ of vertical rise. The 1.8-mile vehicle access road is closed in the summer but open to mountain bikes and foot travel. I borrowed an ebike and rode to the summit via the reasonable grade ‘jeep road’.
Summit 7112, Montana | June 2021
Summit 7112 is at the head of Ninemile Creek and overlooks the Clark Fork valley to the north. It is a pleasant hike on cooler summer days. The on-trail and off-trail are currently exposed with very little tree cover.
Summit 8168, Montana | October 2022
This un-named summit is near US Forest Service trail #313 south from Skalkaho Pass. The trail begins in a regenerated timber harvest unit and quickly transitions to old-lodgepole pine/Rocky Mountain subalpine fir forest partly burned by a wildfire in the early 2000’s. Most of the trail is within this wildfire and is dominated by snags and windfall trees. Use caution traveling this area especially on windy days.
Pine Benchmark, OR | November 2022
Nice easy walk, bike or drive up. Can be VERY windy.
Full report at https://w7mtb.blogspot.com/2022/11/activation-report-w7oce-068-pine.html
Lava Butte - OR - November 2022
Very easy walk in all seasons. Summer is very busy.
Full trip report at https://w7mtb.blog/2022/11/activation-report-w7oce-188-lava-butte.html
Skalkaho Mountain, Montana | October 2022
Skalkaho gets its name from the area in Salish meaning ‘many trails’. Unrelated to the name, the summit does have several trails converging near its summit. I chose the trail coming from the west off FS road #364. This trail has many views of other SOTA summits and to the west the much higher elevation Bitterroot Range.
Dome Shaped Mountain, Montana | October 2022
Dome Shaped Mountain is a scenic and lightly traveled trail near Hamilton Montana. Much of the hike overlooks a large portion of the Stony Mountain Roadless Area. Alpine larch dominate the summit with brilliant yellow fall color in early October contrasting with green whitebark pine.
Summit 7560, Idaho 27 July 2022
SOTA Summit 7560 could easily be termed “Magruder Ridge High Point”. It is located on Magruder Ridge approximately 1.0 mile south of Magruder Mountain that it dominates by a mere 138’. Magruder Mountain and Ridge are named for the massacre of Lloyd Magruder and his party of four others in 1863 near this area. See sign photo.
Long Tom Mountain, Idaho | September 2022
Long Tom Mountain is a long forest road drive mostly through burned forest. The current Long Tom Lookout built in 1977 is ½ mile south of the SOTA summit.