24: Garnet Mountain Forest Service Lookout, Montana

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In this installment of "24", we focused on fast food preparation and the elimination of a whole lotta gear by hiking into a U.S. Forest Service lookout cabin.

About twenty miles southwest of Bozeman, Montana lies the summit of Garnet Mountain. On top sits a beautiful fire lookout - the most popular cabin rental in the Gallatin National Forest's inventory. The two-story cabin was built in the 1960s to replace a worn-down original built in the 1930s. Panoramic views of the Gallatin, Bridger, Tobacco Root, and Spanish Peak mountain ranges reward the 2,000- to 3,000-foot hill climb.

On September 25, 2009, after the school bell rang, my friend Steve and our kids piled into the Jeep and drove to Rat Lake to start our hike and another 24-hour adventure.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

Introduction
Photo Essay
Video
Gear Strategy
Rationalizing My Gear Choices
Gear List
- Trekking Clothes Worn
- Camping Gear and Extra Clothes
- Consumables

# WORDS: 870
# PHOTOS: 9

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Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)

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Oct 20, 2009 at 9:03 pm #1240443

Addie Bedford
BPL Member

@addiebedford
Locale: Montana

Companion forum thread to:

24: Garnet Mountain Forest Service Lookout, Montana

Oct 20, 2009 at 9:25 pm #1538334

Ken Thompson
BPL Member

@here
Locale: Right there

AWESOME!. Really need to rent Bear Basin Butte lookout up here now.

Oct 20, 2009 at 9:47 pm #1538337

Boozer
BPL Member

@anywayoutside
Locale: South East

Very, very nice. I am loving this series.

Oct 21, 2009 at 4:10 am #1538376

Thomas Gauperaa
BPL Member

@gauperaa
Locale: Norway

Love the video! Looking forward to more from this series.

Oct 21, 2009 at 6:10 am #1538391

Justin Marney
BPL Member

@gotascii
Locale: Shenandoah

Decided to re-post this in its own thread as to not incite a thread jacking. Great video Ryan, love the series!

Oct 21, 2009 at 8:20 am #1538414

Anonymous
Inactive

Great camera work Ryan! Lovely spot!

Oct 21, 2009 at 8:38 am #1538421

Joe Clement
BPL Member

@skinewmexico
Locale: Southwest

Just keep rubbin' it in…………..

And do another video on Jiffy Pop, I've been trying for 40 years to make it without burning it!

Oct 21, 2009 at 10:02 am #1538446

Tad Englund
BPL Member

@bestbuilder
Locale: Pacific Northwest

Ryan, great series- thanks for showing your food bin (though I'll never use the spam). I also applaud your understanding how the eleven year old hikes- it really helps that you spent time with this age boys before you had your own- your patience on the hike up made for a much better trip for everyone and improved your relationship with your son.

Oct 21, 2009 at 10:55 am #1538456

Roger B
BPL Member

@rogerb
Locale: Denmark

Excellent Ryan, having spent a number of years taking young persons into the outdoors my feelings and experiences completely resonate with yours.

Thanks

Oct 21, 2009 at 11:12 am #1538460

Aaron Zuniga
Member

@gliden2
Locale: Northwest

Ryan,

Thanks for this series sharing the simplicity of Ul hiking.It's this type of info that makes getting out with only short amount of time possible, and fun; Thanks! I hope Chase didn't bring that camp chair you found in his pack =).

Oct 21, 2009 at 6:50 pm #1538605

Darren Johnson
BPL Member

@woodworkerfella
Locale: Blue Ridge Mountains, NC

Nice video work! I know that took you hours and hours to put together. The quality shows that. Did you use iMovie to edit it?

Oct 21, 2009 at 7:28 pm #1538613

Brad Fisher
Spectator

@wufpackfn
Locale: NC/TN/VA Mountains

Real nice. Enjoyed.

Oct 21, 2009 at 7:57 pm #1538622

Jim Colten
BPL Member

@jcolten
Locale: MN

Very nice!
Great message well delivered.
Very good that the boys dictated the flow of the trip.
Love your taste in music.

Oct 21, 2009 at 8:44 pm #1538640

Kathy A Handyside
BPL Member

@earlymusicus
Locale: Southeastern Michigan

Ryan – what a wonderful series this is! I'm so enjoying it. It's so nice to see kids in the wilderness, instead of being locked in the city or even worse, a ghetto area. I know from the hikes I remember my dad taking me on when I was little, that your son will remember these times forever. It's a very special bond.

The more I see of the area near where you live, the more I want to move there. I currently live in s.e. Michigan, 16 miles s.w. of Detroit. In 4 years, I will be able to afford to do early retirement and am scouting out good places out west to move to. I want to buy an acre of two of land on which to put my tiny house on wheels, and be close to backpacking areas. Here where I live, it's at least a 6 hour drive to get to a good backpacking area.

I wonder if Backpacking Light could include articles about great places to live near great backpacking areas?

Pax,
Kathy

Oct 21, 2009 at 8:47 pm #1538641

Kathy A Handyside
BPL Member

@earlymusicus
Locale: Southeastern Michigan

Jiffy Pop rocks! However, I can only pop it over my stove; I've always ended up burning it over a campfire. :)

Kathy

Oct 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm #1538647

Kelly Brent
BPL Member

@kbrent
Locale: Central Texas

Well Done Ryan!

The video is impressive in all respects!

Business is extremely demanding these days.

The series truly inspires one to get away for 24 hours…

Having a son similar in age in Scouts I find this video particularly appealing…

It is easy to share BPL with other Scouting parents….

May you enjoy much success!

Oct 22, 2009 at 1:07 am #1538684

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

This series is inspiring! It's giving me lots of ideas on how to organize so I can go out at last-minute notice instead of spending a week in preparation (mostly food, which I should be preparing during the winter, when I don't backpack). The last-minute fast prep is particularly needed for spring and fall outings, when fair weather windows in the Pacific NW are usually very short. The series is also giving me ideas for going out with my grandkids!

I do have some questions and comments:

Chase's gear and clothing list? Please? (Aside from the chair–I hope you convinced him to leave it behind because there were chairs in the cabin!) With my 9-year-old grandson, it's books! How much weight does Chase carry (without chair!)? What kind of backpack?

Ant lions are among the most fascinating of all critters! When my kids were Chase's age, they would spend the whole day "feeding" them!

Re storage of food in the plastic bin–I've had two instances of mice gnawing through them. I think they enjoy the plastic, because in neither case did they gnaw any of the contents. Last week, some rodent got into my car parked two nights at the trailhead (how can they get into a completely closed car?). It chewed up my apple (the orange was left untouched, fortunately), chewed a big hole in a plastic bin of camping gear (fortunately didn't chew the tent inside) and chewed up a full pocket pack of kleenex. I don't understand why they like the plastic, but it's definitely not mouse-proof!

Renting lookouts–how long in advance do you need to do this? Here in Oregon, they are very popular and you usually need to reserve months in advance–hardly a spur of the moment activity.

Poor Maia looked so sad being left behind in her kennel! What a sweet dog! I hope you can take her along next time! After your first "24" film, I'm still trying to teach my Hysson to shake himself off on command.

Oct 23, 2009 at 7:16 am #1539003

Truls Cronberg
Member

@truls-cronberg

.

Oct 23, 2009 at 5:27 pm #1539180

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

Thanks, Truls, I'll try that!

Oct 24, 2009 at 4:35 am #1539249

Nicolas Costes
BPL Member

@ncostes

Be modern, use metric system ;-)

Although the american audience may still relate more to gallons and ounces, why don't you add metric system measures?

Why do I mention this ?

I thoroughly enjoyed the video (weel done) and the subject, but my viewing was marred by having to stop and think several times to do the conversions in my head (like carrying 2 gallons of water), same thing when reading the gear lists.

Oct 25, 2009 at 7:15 pm #1539637

Mark McLauchlin
BPL Member

@markmclauchlin
Locale: Western Australia

Great report Ryan, really enjoyed it.

My question…was the video shot with the Panasonic Lumix TS1?

Cheers
Mark

Oct 28, 2009 at 6:53 pm #1540663

Tom Clark
BPL Member

@tomclark
Locale: East Coast

Nice addition to the series, and reminder that there are all sorts of ways to get out and enjoy nature.

Oct 30, 2009 at 4:05 pm #1541304

Ryan Jordan
Admin

@ryan
Locale: Central Rockies

Thanks everyone for the very nice response to the video and article! It humbles me to know that I'm striking a chord with this series.

Nicolas – I like gallons because there's less of them. If I'd said "8 liters" then psychologically, I would have felt way more burdened because I was carrying 8 of something rather than 2 of something. 8 is heavy. 2 is not as heavy. Right? :)

To others: some of the video was shot with the TS1, some was shot with the E-P1 and a combination of lenses. The really fancy changing depth of field shots were mostly with the excellent Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton, manually focused. It's a poor photo lens on the E-P1 (can't deliver a lot of fine detail to the sensor) for enlarged photos, but it's a terrific video lens!

The TS1 shoots good video, but creative control is really limited with that camera, and you definitely see quality degradation when you view this on a big screen in native 720p relative to the 720p of the E-P1, which is pretty good.

Chase brought the chair. I didn't have the heart to sneak into his pack.

I'm putting together the next episode now. Ryan Connelly and I did a very wintry traverse earlier this month with lots of snow and night hiking :)

Oct 31, 2009 at 4:00 pm #1541501

Mary D
BPL Member

@hikinggranny
Locale: Gateway to Columbia River Gorge

Would Chase be willing to post his gear list? Thanks, Chase, if you're willing!

Nov 8, 2009 at 12:14 am #1543760

Carl Ross
Member

@zingdingo

I've been to Rat Lake, good memories of fishing and bear hunting with friends who had no sleep. Thanks for bringing those to the surface.

The lookout though, I'll avoid, too many pictures of naked men. (shudder)
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