Out there with Tom: Milking the waning days of Fall color and hiking

My companions on Piegan Pass: Katie, Vicky and Camille

The Garden Wall at Piegan Pass

A nice surprise herd of elk on our way to Smith River State Park

Smith River park has built up since I last visited

The Smith near the put-in

We got out to see the Smith River State Park, Katie's 55th state park (out of 56), hiked to Piegan Pass in Glacier Park and I soloed Mount Jumbo in Missoula as we are beginning to run out of hiking days. A wicked snowstorm hit us last week, and we encountered remnants of it traveling and hiking.

The larch are just starting to turn on the west side, taking on a chartreuse hue before putting on their autumn blaze of yellow or deep orange.

Katie is out to get all the parks and now has only the Thompson Chain of Lakes near Libby, which she'll have within a week. Her qwest has taken her throughout the state in the past couple of years and is truly remarkable given that nine months ago she was bedridden with 13 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a concussion, a broken sternum, an injured windpipe and multiple contusions from the car wreck Jan. 4 near the Flesher Pass turnoff on Highway 200 just south of Rogers Pass. Two dear friends in the car were killed and another badly injured as an oncoming truck slammed into the car they were in.

We were pleased to hear this week that the driver of that truck was found guilty of four counts of negligent driving. A sentencing and restitution hearing will be in December. We were forced to sit through an agonizing day long court session where a not guilty plea was explained by the truck driver claiming that being from eastern Montana the driving conditions were far different than where the accident happened in western Montana's mountains. He did not adequately explain why he set his cruise control at 75 mph in a 70 mph zone where there were icy conditions.

It has been more than 40 years since I floated the Smith, when my kids were still in elementary and junior high schools. I was surprised at how nice the park was. Hiking was limited mainly to the roadway and along small stretches of the river, near where a tributary flows into it. There was a nice outcropping of rock above the park. We drove through White Sulphur Springs and then 26 miles along a good rural road to reach it. The drive was through beautiful ranch and foothills country. There looked like good camping and picnic spots at the park. The takeout is down near Ulm, some 60 river miles from the put in.

On the drive we saw a large elk herd and several golden eagles.

Not a particularly friendly sign under this friendly Golden Eagle on way to Smith

I went to check out the snow in the high country a couple of days later and progressively went from one prospective hiking spot covered with snow to another until reaching Missoula where I opted for Mount Jumbo over Mount Sentinel. It turned out to be a good choice, with 4.4 miles roundtrip and more than 1,800 feet of elevation gain and loss. Missoula was a blaze of fall color. I was very impressed with the Fall beauty there. The mountains beyond Lincoln had less snow than the east side.

Katie had done Grinnell Lake in Glacier park the day I did Mount Jumbo and came back with news that the trails were mostly clear and the weather beautiful.

So two days later we headed back to Glacier and did the 9.4 miles and 2,400 feet up and back to Piegan Pass in stunningly clear weather. We hit some ice and snow on the trail in the forest, but for the final 1.8 miles to the pass it was in the sun and the trail was as clear of snow and ice like it was summer.

I had a pretty rough time of it on Piegan. I had made the mistake of getting both the flu and Covid shots the day before and my body reacted with aches and fatigue.

Despite that, the trip was glorious.