With all these nice fall days, it's hard to stay inside and work. The weather forcast was great, so I got up early (for me...), ate a good breakfast, and brought in the horses. I gave Poppie an extra large helping of grain; she should have suspected something was up. She's a big horse, but is in pretty good shape from being ridden all summer and pack trips the past two months.
Despite the length of time I've been here, I'd never been to the top of Falls Point, where there is an abandoned U.S. Forest Service fire lookout. Falls Point is a small peak just above the Forest Sevice cabin on the North Fork of the Blackfoot River, in the Scapegoat Wilderness area. The cabin is about six miles from the trailhead, and it's another three miles or so up Falls Point. But I was riding from the house, which is another seven miles from the trailhead.
We left at 8:15, made pretty good time up to the trailhead, and were at the cabin just after noon. Most of the deciduous trees had lost their leaves, but the larches were still colorful, although starting to loose their needles. It was a cold ride up, even on this relatively warm sunny day. The sun is low in the sky all day long this time of year, and we were in the shadows most of the way.
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| Near Hawks' Nest | Pool below the Trailhead | Below the Trailhead | Cabin and Pack Bridge |
I passed one small group of three hunters coming out as I was heading in. Other than that, I didn't see anyone, and it looked like the whole drainage was empty. No rigs at the trailhead besides the guys' coming out. The next day was deer and elk general season opener, and most people have cleared out of the high country to hunt in more accessable places lower down by then.
Here's where we were going; If you expand the photo on the right you can see the fire lookout at the top.
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| North Fork and Falls Point | Falls Point |
On the way up, the trail divides, and the well-beaten path goes over to an outfitter spike camp. I wasn't paying attention, and that well-beaten path isn't on the map, so I missed the turn-off for the trail going up to the lookout. The mistake was pretty obvious fairly soon, but since I knew the spike camp was there and had wanted to go check it out, I took the opportunity to do so. There were nice views of Red Mountain on the way over. Once there, the trail continued on up a valley I'd been curious about... So we detoured a bit more, then worked our way back and continued on up to the lookout.
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| Red Mountain |
The view on the way up is pretty good, and stopping to take pictures gave Poppie a chance to rest a bit. We were going up a south facing slope, and the grass was great. The deer and elk obviously like it, although with hunting season open they aren't exactly showing up for pictures.
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| North Fork Valley |
It was a pleasant climb up, not too steep and wonderful vistas. Poppie may not have thought it was so pleasant, but she didn't complain. She's a pretty good trooper when she's in shape. I hiked part way and led her to give her a rest.
The tower itself is rather disappointing, not unexpected given its long abandonment.
As you can see from the photo below, it hadn't warmed up too much... I still had my wool finger mitts on.
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| Falls Pt Fire Tower |
One of my reasons for wanting to go up here was to take a 360 degree panorama. Unfortunately, in order to do that I needed to be up on the tower, and the lower two thirds of the stairs were missing. I suspect the Forest Service took them out to prevent people climbing up there for liability reasons.
Never one to be stopped by something as trivial as missing stairs, I shinnyied and climbed up one of the legs until I got to the stairs, wormed myself onto the landing, and carefully climbed up to the tower. Nice view!
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| Scapegoat Mountain | Red Mountain |
I always enjoy looking at Scapegoat Mountain; it's an enticing hunk of rock, and I hope to get up there next year.
And here's my panorama...
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Not done yet... |
We left the top at 3:25, and boogied home. We made it to the trailhead by dusk, but stopped to talk to some neighbors and visitors for a half hour or so. Poppie picked her way across the river in the dark, then we worked our way home the last four miles. We had a little twilight and some feeble light from Mars, I think, but the moon wasn't even close to coming up. But the old logging road we were on is pretty friendly for this, assuming the bears aren't out prowling. Poppie did a great braile crossing back over to Hawks' Nest, through the brush to our trail, and home.
We got back shortly after 8:00. It had been a long, fun day. We did about 35 miles total; Poppie didn't seem too tuckered out, but she did enjoy the extra alfalfa cubes and grain and a long rub down.
I think my poor bod is slowly stiffening up. Or else I'm just more terrified than I used to be. My ribs feel like I've either bruised them or cracked one from hugging the fire tower post while shinnying up. Maybe I had a death squeeze on it. I don't remember that happening when I was 13, or 35...
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
