Decisions and Destinations

So many choices, so little time.
Picking a hiking adventure in Northwest Montana is difficult. Its kind of like opening a box of chocolates… which one to choose? Do I go for the slow eating sticky middle one or the hard, solid chocolate? Understand, we are not going for the peak bagging, alpine, roped up experience but for someplace we can bring the dog, not see too many, if any, people, and have a great view at the end. This time we decided to try Firefighter Mountain overlooking Hungry Horse Reservoir.

The road to the lookout tower is about fifteen miles south of Martin City on the South Fork Road (east shore). The road, FR38B, from South Shore Road to the fire tower is about four miles long. Not wanting to do an eight-mile round trip, we decided to find a spot to park a mile or so up FR38B and then walk up from there. Spoiler alert… FR38B is a road but it is a very narrow and sometimes very rugged road. Welcome to Montana.

There was a sign at the beginning of the fire road.

If decision one was to pick the destination, decision two was to decide if we wanted to take a chance at being part of a Grizzly bear study. Scientific Question: Do Grizzlies like to eat New York transplants? What the hell, we went on.
Finding a place to leave the truck was the next decision. On most of the lower half the road was only about 1.2 times as wide as my truck, a little narrow. We ended up sticking the Chevy Silverado under a tree after a nine-point turn. Of course, the road got better as we walked up higher. Who knew?
One of the more difficult decisions with this destination at this time of year was to decide how many wild berries to eat along the way. This woman walked and ate, and walked and picked. After personal experimentation I found these particular berries go really well with pancakes or French Toast.

I wasn’t worried about the bears, we had bear spray and this obviously vicious watch dog with us. What kind of dog is he? A Montana Mountain dog. It’s a new breed.

The tower at Firefighter Mountain is staffed by volunteers who spend two-weeks at a time in the lookout. We chatted with a very nice gentleman, ate our lunch, took in the fantastic view, and headed back down. It’s not a hard trek to the top but down is easier than up. Just thought I’d let you know.
All in all, this is a great walk with great views.