Bucket List
A running (ha...puns) list of projects I'd like to do someday. Putting this out there in the hopes of sparking conversation, sharing info & inspiration, etc. with others interested in some of the same.
These are mostly Montana adventures because that's where I live and what I know. And they're not higher-profile efforts like the Sierra High Route, Nolan's 14, etc. There's plenty of info on stuff like that elsewhere; the point of this list is to think about lesser-known or more out-of-the box ideas. Want to share any info on these? Do any of these spark your own ideas? Let me know!
Swan Range - Full Traverse
N-S traverse of the full Swan range, from the northern terminus of Columbia Mountain to the southern terminus at the Morrell Lookout near Seeley Lake. Or maybe the southern terminus is farther south? Another logical possibility for the southern endpoint would be Lake Mountain, just before the range runs into the North Fork of the Blackfoot river. Anybody have some thoughts on this?
Any way you go about it, it would be an epic adventure. I'd prefer going N-S so I could do the first 70-ish miles of trail running along the beautiful Alpine Trail #7 while things are still fresh & rosy. After that the trail ends at Inspiration Point and something around 70 miles of off-trail travel along the crest begins. There are miles and miles of rugged ridgeline scrambling, everything from runnable ridgeline to class 5 climbing, through some truly awe-inspiring territory. It sounds like most if not all of the class 5 can be skipped by taking more circuitous routes and dropping off the ridgeline some.
Roughly 140 miles and 30K' ascent. The off-trail section intersects some trails, so it could be set up as either a supported or unsupported adventure.
Mission Mountains - Full Traverse
From the northern terminus near the north end of Flathead lake to the southern terminus at the North Fork of the Jocko river, just south of Grey Wolf peak. What a wild, immersive experience this would be.
Roughly 100 miles, 40k' ascent. Has an end-to-end traverse of the range been done?
Bitterroot Mountains - "Path of Most Resistance" 50k
Mountains don't lend themselves well to straight-line travel. You always follow contours and the path of least resistance over ridgelines, canyons, and rivers. But what would it be like to purposefully fight against that? To take as close to the straight-line path as possible, no matter that it makes no sense for the terrain you're moving through? It's an exceedingly stupid idea...and damn interesting.
The Bitterroot range runs nearly perfectly N-S and has an unbroken section of E-S canyons. This route runs against the grain through several of them. In the spirit of the adventure, this should be an early summer adventure to ensure that there's plenty of shitty postholing snow and scary creek crossings to deal with. Also in the spirit — call it a 50k even though it's 36 miles in Caltopo...and even that likely is under-estimated.
Start with seven miles of trail running up Kootenai creek to get back into the meat of things. Then bushwhack south, trying to keep as straight a line as possible up and down each canyon. End at Canyon peak and drop down to the Canyon Cr trail. Run out the four miles of that trail to the Canyon Cr trailhead. Drink lots of beer and never ever do this again.
Roughly 36 miles and 27k' ascent: https://caltopo.com/m/686U
Bitterroot Mountains - Full Traverse
Full traverse of the Bitteroot Mountains, from southern terminus at Nez Perce pass to the northern terminus at Lolo Peak. End at the Lolo Pk. trailhead. No idea how big this is. Somewhere around 100+ miles, 40-50k' ascent or so.
I was born and raised in Hamilton, and grew up looking across the valley at these mountains. It would be a deeply meaningful backyard adventure to put together this kind of traverse through my home range.
Rattlesnake Wilderness - Full Circumnavigation
Door-to-door adventure in Missoula's backyard wilderness. Summiting all the major peaks in the Rattlesnake wilderness in a single-day push. I'd say this would be pretty akin to a hard 100k race effort.
Jog to the Jumbo trailhead from my house, then work up the eastern side of the wilderness by summiting Jumbo, Sheep, and Mineral peaks. Hit Boulder point and Triangle peak along the northern flank, then cross over the main corridor to summit McLeod. Work back south from there, tagging Sanders, Murphy, and Point Six, then either backtrack along the ridge or commit to bushwhacking through Grant Cr in order to connect to Mosquito peak from Point Six. Run south along the ridge to Stuart, then down the trail to the main Rattlesnake trailhead. Work your way down the Rattlesnake creek trails and connect into the Waterworks trails, just because that's more aesthetic than running back into town on the road. Finish back at home, or more appropriately, at Big Dipper ice cream.
58 miles in Caltopo, 18,500' ascent: https://caltopo.com/m/H0KR
Selway to Bitterroots traverse
TBD...but run up the Selway, cross over the Bitterroots and finish in the Bitterroot valley. 100+ miles, probably — could be fun as a two-day fastpack.