38 replies to this topic

[Foy]

Foy...

 

I'm a couple of miles down 1 from you...in the Containment Area (RY).

 

Purchase this Butler map.  While oriented for road bikes, it will work great for a "drive about".

 

While I have ridden dual sport motorcycles all over ID and MT, the Butler map is great for finding those stretches of road that are most scenic.  Butler does not map out the hidden gems that locals prefer to keep to themselves.  But stop at any roadhouse, cafe, climbing center and locals are more than happy to share their spots.

 

A friend lives in Bozeman and spends more time with his FWC in middle and upper ID than MT.  Mid and upper ID is truly breath-taking.

 

I have plenty of maps and notes to share if you want to meet for a coffee sometime.

 

Bill

Yes, Bill, I recall you're a neighbor over in the Containment Area.  Thanks for the link, a certain home run for a map junkie like me.  I just ordered Willie and Jeanne's second title "4x4 Routes in Southwestern Montana" and the Butler map will be a fine complement.  Over the decades I've often marveled at how a stretch of road or trail which looks nondescript on a map or satellite image turns out to be a real gem.  

 

I've got about 8 more weeks of WOT at the office where I serve as a Revenue Collecting Agent for the Federal Gummint (CPA practice) but soon after that I'll definitely be in touch for that coffee/map session.  

 

Thanks again!

 

Foy

[slomo]

I live in Hamilton Montana and will be glad to give advice on the area. I will be heading off from time to time in my Grandby...just did Moab and before that City of Rocks. 

[Foy]

I live in Hamilton Montana and will be glad to give advice on the area. I will be heading off from time to time in my Grandby...just did Moab and before that City of Rocks. 

Thanks slomo!  I've been in, around, and through Hamilton a number of times.  Looks like a great place to live!  I'm pondering a route over Skalkaho Pass to Hamilton from P'burg enroute to Horse Creek Hot Spring just inside Idaho from the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River. Have you been up above Painted Rocks SP to the state line divide and over into the Salmon River drainage, dropping down to Shoup?

 

Foy

[buckland]

Hey Foy... great to read through this and recall our trip out there with your help last summer. We had a ball. Hope your plans go well and will watch for this in the trip reports. Two more years and we will be able to travel shoulder season to get back out there and wander around. Happy trails.

[Wango]

Anyone passing through my neck of the woods is welcome to come by for a beer/coffee etc. Would love to share(steal) ideas.

w

[wcj]

Good evening

Horse creek hotsprings is unique but may not be worth the time. The area burned a few years ago, they saved the structure around the hot springs but the immediate area is a lot of dead trees. If you go, go in from the Bitteroot side, trying to follow the directions from the Salmon side found in the guide books is a disaster.
It will take a full day to get in and out. If you are checking off hot springs on a list, go ,if not there are better choices.
You are staying in my "backyard" so let me know if you have other questions.

[Foy]

Dillon is another fine Montana town in which to live. The 7-8 weeks I spent there for geology school field camp in 1978 is the reason the wife and I keep coming back. It probably wouldn't do to live there since we'd be taking all of our meals at the Taco Bus. But as to Horse Creek HS, we'd be in transit from P'burg down to Salmon ID that day and we recognize the time element of the trip in and out. Our friends in Challis have made it clear that the Banzai descent from Horse Creek Pass down Spring Creek Rd to the Salmon River is a thrill a minute but unless current info from guys like you MT fellows suggests it's washed out or otherwise we aren't shy about doing a long loop off of US 93. Our friends' own descriptions and pics of the post-burn soaks they've enjoyed there make it an attractive trip to consider. But I wonder if you've been to Panther Creek HS just up Panther Creek from the Salmon River. If Horse Creek is for any reason out of consideration, Panther Creek might be an alternate destination. On a more localized question for a Dillonite, we're passing through for a lunch at the Taco Bus enroute to Elk Lake Lodge down in the Centennial Valley and have never traversed either Blacktail Creek or Ruby River to get there from Dillon. I'm leaning towards the Ruby route via Sweetwater partly because it passes through one of our field school mapping areas near the talc mine and partly because it comes out further east in the Centennial. But you can talk me into taking the Blacktail all the way! We're looking at a Gravelly Range Road traverse with a summit hike of Black Butte on the way from Elk Lake to Bozeman and any suggestions you may have for that would also be welcomed. Thanks!

Edited by Foy, 25 March 2018 - 11:08 AM.

[wcj]

Good morning
The soak at horse creek is excellent, The area is less desirable from the burn. I would not spend the time on Panther creek. The soaking pools from its heyday washed out after a fire several years ago and were never rebuilt. I was there last fall and it has continued to degrade, there is no usable pool and the water is dangerously hot. It put some guy in the hospital a couple of years ago and killed his dog, a search should find the news article. Jerry Johnson and Wier are nice springs off the Lochsa river, popular but fall is the best time and mid week isn't bad.
The Blacktail to Elk lake is the most direct and I think prettiest, fastest is interstate to Monida then cut across. If you are going back to Bozeman from there then go out the Ruby. Lots of miles on that loop and no fuel, plan. I have a Black Butte photo in my office. You might want to pick up a couple of forest service travel plan maps, they are the local standard for these types of trips. You are looking at a lot of windshield time.
The taco bus just reopened for the season, we should at least meet for lunch.

[Foy]

Thanks wcj.  

 

I now recall reading about the too-hot water incident and the death of a dog but I did not recall it was at Panther Creek HS.  Thanks for the tips about its washed out status. 

 

Excepting flying in to and out of Bozeman on certain dates and spending a couple of nights in Philipsburg, our plans are still evolving.  We may or may not head down to Salmon for an overnight or two.  If we do, we'll either venture over to Horse Creek or might take the easy way and stop at Sharkey's on the way in or out of Salmon. 

 

We've never been to JJ or Wier but on this trip we won't likely get that far north/west.  One of these days...............

 

Our trip into the Centennial Valley and Elk Lake in 2015 had us entering from Monida, so as nice as that is, we're looking for a different way in.  Thanks for the suggestion on the Blacktail route.  Maybe we can stop by Antone Cabin to check it out--staying there has been an intriguing thought for a few years.

 

Fuel, fuel, fuel......we'll be in a rental of presently unknown nature/fuel burn rate, and fuel capacity, and we're acutely aware of the planning requirements which the total absence of fuel east of I-15, south of Dillon/Virginia City, and west of US 20 dictates.  I am planning to run over to Island Park, ID on the day before departure from Elk Lake back towards Bozeman to get fuel, and maybe to hike over to Brower's Spring from the Sawtelle Peak Observatory road.  That looks like a pretty straightforward hike, short in distance, and light in elevation gains/losses.  Gotta get comfortable with being in grizzly country and pack a couple cans of spray, and perhaps tell a lie to my wife.

 

I have all of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge NF base maps and will certainly snag a 2018 MVUM over the summer's course.  

 

The hike to the Black Butte summit from the Gravelly Range Road looks fairly straightforward--all above timberline, about 1,000' of elevation gain.  Any thoughts or suggestions about that?

 

As our plans become more defined, I'll let you know when we plan to pass through Dillon.  And even if we don't overnight, we simply must pass through Dillon inasmuch as it's the setting for so many fond memories of the last 4 decades of our lives. And we must have some Taco Bus fare washed down with cane sugar soda!

 

Thanks again for the tips.

 

Foy

[wcj]

Hi Foy

I have not climbed Black Butte so no help there.
Antone cabin is scenic , but depending on how much recent use it has had may have a mouse problem. My wife is the health inspector for the county so she has bigger problems with mice than griz. Your wife shouldn't be too concerned about bears, problems are minimal outside of Yellowstone. Bear spray and common sense work well.
Had to go to Salmon today, hit Sharkey's on the way home.
If you have not done it come up from the hot spring over Lemhi pass, it is usually open through the fall and one of my favorites.

Stay in touch, depending on your timing I may be on campus but at a minimum can find time for food.