High (hot) summer: Clark Fork Gorge, Grant Ridge Traverse, Sluice Boxes

 

Enjoying an escape from the heat on a float through the Clark Fork Gorge west of Missoula

Looking back on the glacier beneath Mount Grant in the Great Bear Wilderness

One of the 16 crossings on Belt Creek in the Sluice Boxes State Park

The pace of summer has quickened even as the temperatures have risen into day-after-day 90s.

We've tried to cool off with a float down the Clark Fork River west of Missoula, and a walk down Belt Creek in the Sluice Boxes.  Luckily, we had shade much of the way during a Grant Ridge Traverse in the Great Bear Wilderness.

I don't recall a summer as consistently hot as this one, so we've had to pick and choose the days we get out and hope we don't miss some cool weather in the high country.

We had done the Clark Fork Gorge several years ago, but this time we used a different vendor and we took several more hours, making it a leisurely float.  We were blessed with a young guide, River Nizzo of Missoula, a recent UM grad, who made the trip exceptionally fun and interesting by pointing out geological features and the wildlife.  We saw numerous bald eagles along the way.

I've loved this 10-mile Grant Ridge Traverse over the years.  This hike gains 3,600 feet along the way.

This year's hike was a bit more arduous because the first three miles up the trail up from the Stanton Creek crossing was littered with downed trees, many of them quite large.  That meant we moved at a crawl --- less than a mile an hour fighting the deadfall.  It was so bad that I lost my $200 camera along the way.  The huckleberries and thimbleberries were ripe and handy and very tasty.  For me the highlight of this hike is getting to the top of ridgelines to view the Grant Mountain ridge, the Grant Peak and Stanton glaciers and terrific views into Glacier National Park, views dominated by Mount Stimson and the Mount St. Nicholas matterhorn.

While the park is overcrowded with tourists queuing up for drive-throughs and hikes, beyond the Stanton Lake turnoff in the first mile we saw only one other couple during our trip.

We capped off the week with the 7-mile Sluice Boxes State Park hike through the Belt Creek limestone canyon.  It had been many years since my last trip through, although I take many short trips into this area, only a 25-minute drive from Great Falls. 

Since my last hike there the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has improved the trail system, marking a clear route where there had been many confusing social trails previously.  Of great help was marking each stream crossing, and there are 16 of them, with a number.  So when, say, you've reached crossing No. 9, you know you have 7 to go.  My only criticism of the trail is that in a number of places it is quite steep and an older person like me had to be very careful going down.  I was dismayed that the spotted knapweed noxious weed had become prevalent throughout. Poison ivy was everywhere prompting my wife to say she probably won't return for the full walk-through.  The shuttle road from the Riceville trailhead to the Logging Creek bridge was in excellent condition.  The water was warm and relatively shallow.  The deep green pools looked to be excellent for fishing or swimming.  The only people we encountered were at the Albright ghost town, who had come down from a private ranch on Highway 89.  They were being led by a guide from the new luxury subdivision Ranches on Belt Creek.  They were paying handsomely for what we were doing free!

A return to Grant ridge

Four days after doing the full Grant Ridge Traverse, I returned by myself to hunt for my camera, going to the spot where I realized it had been lost.

This time I counted the downed trees across the trail ---- some 60 of them (120 considering I turned around and came back down).

I had no luck despite a thorough search.

I'm convinced someone came later, found the camera and took it.  Oh, well.  Perhaps this is my payback for finding and keeping an expensive set of field glasses in the Little Belts.

Of course I enjoyed just being in wilderness, but the Great Bear is especially precious with its Big River (Middle Fork) Flathead, glaciers like Stanton, Great Northern, and Grant, high peaks walkable by connecting ridgelines, alpine lakes, abundant huckleberries and thimbleberries, and I could go on.

I wish I had done a better job exploring this amazing place when I was younger and stronger than I am now.