I’ve hiked/backpacked all over Montana, but had yet to get into the Spanish Peaks area, I fixed that on Saturday :) I picked a 24 mile-ish loop that would take me into the heart of the Spanish Peaks. It was going to be overly easy as it is roughly 7500′ of gain in the first 15 miles, but getting into nice country is rarely easy. The weather was cooperating (except for some slightly hazy conditions due to smoke) with forecast high of around 70. I took the trail up Little Hell Roaring Ck, steep 5-ish mile climb through mostly forested country. I then hit the Indian Ridge trail and before long the country started opening up.
heading for Beacon Point, if you look carefully you can see the trail winding up along the ridge (tough climb number two :))
looking down on Grayling Lake, also saw four mountain goats lounging below the ridge
looking into the NF Hell Roaring drainage, with a peek at Thompson Lake
it’s a long drop into Hell Roaring, precious elevation lost, but Thompson Lake was really nice and I spent 15 minutes soaking up to my waist in it’s freezing water
one last climb out of the upper end of the cirque
my reward for this climb was Summit Lake, spent some time here lounging and soaking up the views
from Summit Lake it’s pretty much all downhill, the first 5-ish miles was tough downhill, steep and very technical- runnable, but you had to stay on your game; which is hard to do when there is so much gawking to do!
Mirror Lake
headwaters of Spanish Ck
the route
took just under 8 hours with several nice breaks to lounge, eat, soak in views
gear- Osprey Rev 1.5 liter pack w/ a 1.5+ liter bladder (filled twice on the trail), packed a windshirt (Houdini) and hardshell (Helium II) along w/ a light fleece beanie & gloves, Aquatabs, a AMK emergency blanket, lanyard w/ whistle/photon/SA Classic knife, small first aid kit, fire kit, headlamp, map & compass, sunscreen, anti-chafe, TP- all unused save the Aquatabs and sunscreen
worn- MH ball cap, OR Echo long sleeve shirt, OR running shorts, darn Tough socks, Dirty Girl gaiters, Pearl Izumi N2 trail runners
I’ll definitely be going back, several more lakes/drainages to explore; Gallatin Peak looks like it should be bagged as well :)
