Forested Summit

Git Out Ridge is a a 2 point summit located about 5 miles north of Gold Bar. The 6.8 mile (roundtrip) hike begins at Spada Lake and is mostly a walk on a gravel road. About 1/3 of the hike is on an abandoned section of road that goes through the forest. Total elevation gain is ~1300'.

Driving Directions:
Take Highway 2 to Sultan. Take the Sultan Basin Road north. Most of the way is paved, but the last 1/3 of the road is gravel. We went in a Prius and had no trouble - the gravel road is in good shape. Keep following the road until you arrive at Spada Lake Dam.

3537 is a 4-pointer right off Marble Mountain Sno-Park, and despite the busy climbing season it is easily possible to get in here and activate it. You might combine this with a summit of nearby LC-075, if you are feeling especially ambitious.

To get here, take I-5 to Woodland, then SR 503 which becomes SR-503 Spur, which turns into NF-90; turn left onto NF-83 and drive 6 miles to Marble Mountain Sno-Park.

18.5-miles, +4,700 ft; -5,300 From Elk Mountain TH

3.5 miles, +800, - 1,500 ft ft from Trail 562 Junction

I activated this on the 13th day of a 15-day backpacking from the Elk Mountain Trailhead, via Mink Ridge & Marten Creek with a side-trip up Marten Creek to Marten Hot springs; but the route description is the more direct route across Goat Creek and along the Square Rock & Moose Ridge.

22-miles, +6,200 ft; - 6,500 From Elk Mountain TH

3.0 miles, +2,400 ft from Buck Lake Creek

I activated this on the 6th day of a 15-day backpacking from the Elk Mountain Trailhead, but other approaches such as Meadow Creek or Indian Hill may also offer access.  We climbed this from a camp in a beautiful Cedar-Hemlock forest alongside Buck Lake Creek.  While the forest is unburned upstream from the Disgrace Butte trail junction, the forest downstream was burned on the south side of the creek in a 2019 fire.

3.5-miles, +1160 ft; From Pipestone Pass TH

This is a pleasant hike along the Continental Divide Trail that begins near the summit of Pipestone Pass (paved, and plowed).  It is also a POTA “2-Fer” (Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF & CDT) if you activate within 100-feet of the CDT.  It is also located on the northern edge of the historic Thompson Park area, which is a unique congressionally designated Municipal Recreation Area that includes much history related to the Milwaukee Road (Railroad).

This was an easy summit I was surprised I could get to and that it had not been done already. Some of the BLM land in this area is somwhat landlocked by private land and I was anticipating the same for this one but you could drive almost to the summit. Just before you reach the summit take the the time to go to the right to a clearing that looks over Sterling Creek area and you can see the beautiful Red Buttes. Great park like area to work from that is pretty flat with tall timber and some big logs to sit on. There is a jeep road that is not on maps that goes to the top.

This summit is just off the Lolo Motorway that roughly follows along the Nee Me Poo Trail of the Nez Perce and the Lewis and Clark Trail. The Lolo Motorway, USFS #500 is a narrow mostly ridgetop road built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. It provides access to over a dozen SOTA summits along its route that are mostly a short hike.

3420-W7O/SC-263- I did this summit as a 2nd summit of the day, after Fielder Mountain. It is a lovely summit top, very park like with tall timber including Sugar Pine, Canyon Live Oak, among other evergreens and wildflowers. We parked  below a tree with a large memorial sign for a young man, Zach Marsino. This is right at the final climb up, approx 1/4 mi. up a steep well used OHV/jeep road. The path is obvious.

I was tipped-off by K7DJL that Salmo was nearly a drive-up summit not too far from our planned camp on Priest Lake. Turned out that it was a fun scenic drive through cedar and hemlock forest and over a couple of mountain passes. The summit looks into Canada so we decided to spend the night in the saddle between the 1960s era US Forest Service Lookout and the actual summit.

Here's an opportunity to do an easy summit if you are out in the Gorge for wine tasting, other summits or a hike at Catherine Creek. The road walk is short at 0.75 miles one-way and about 200 feet of gain. The road is Priusable the whole way but note that there are a number of "no turn turns" cited by our phone GPS on the way from Highway 14 to the trailhead - the directions below are general.