Awoke to another great looking fall morning so I headed out into the wild. This time I went south in the Bitterroot Valley almost to Victor and turned west. After 15 miles I ran out of badly washboarded dirt roads and came to the Glen Lake trailhead. It's as far west as you can drive in the area. The trail started out in an area badly burned in 2006 by the Gash fire. Lots of dead trees created blowdowns to cross.
After a mile and a half of steady uphill I crossed into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area. This is the third different wilderness I have been in this week, all within an hours drive from my house. Eventually I came to the trails main attraction...Glen Lake. I was surprised at how green the lake is. This is not a color I have come to expect of high mountain lakes across Montana, and this lake is pretty high at 7,500'. There are two additional small unnamed lakes about a quarter of a mile further up from Glen lake and both of them were crystal clear and mostly covered by ice. I got water at the highest one and it was good tasting and really cold.
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| Glen Lake |
After a short break it was time for some off trail scrambling to get to the summit. This was the steep climbing for the day. The snow started getting deeper as I went higher. By staying rear the ridge I made pretty good time. I did have lots of stops to catch my breath as the slope was nearing 50 degrees of incline in places. By the time i reached the summit the snow was almost to my knees. Of course I was hiking in shorts and didn't think to bring my snowshoes along. My feet were soaked by the time I got back below the snow line. It was so nice out I would do it the same way again in a heartbeat.
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| Ridge towards the summit |
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| Summit view towards St Mary Peak |
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