McGuire Mountain - Montana Mountain Project

The "imposing" McGuire Mountain from Inch Mountain

There is a large hole in my mind's map of Northwestern Montana. Mentally I have Whitefish 20 minutes from Eureka which I have 20 minutes from Sandpoint, ID. Obviously this is wrong! After exploring McGuire Mountain, the high point in the Salish Range, I how much I did not know.

The Salish Mountains cover 4000+ square miles with at least 82 named peaks and a whole lot more unnamed points, hills, and mountains in between. There's a lot of land that I cut out of the state in my mental map. 

The Salish range derives its name from the Salish people who were the original inhabitants of this area. Also known as the Flathead, this tribe historically occupied the areas around Flathead Lake. Today much of the area near Flathead Lake, and south of the Salish Mountains, is part of Flathead Reservation; the tribal lands of the Confederation of Salish and Kootenai tribes. 

Seth and Leah checking out the quarry

Most of the mountains in the range consist of rounded, treed summits. But McGuire Mountain and some of the other higher peaks open up to grassy slopes that typically afford views of the surrounding valleys and lakes. The day we opted to climb McGuire there was not a view to be had.

So many glacier lilies! Seeing them this low did not bode well for our chances in snow

We met up with our friends, Seth and Leah, in Whitefish and drove out to the shore of Lake Koocanusa (named for the Kootenai, Canadian, and USA lands that the lake touches). After driving down the eastern shore we parked at a roadside trailhead to begin our upward journey. 

Due to a logging operation on the forest road we initially wanted, we opted to get to McGuire Mountain by first summiting Inch Mountain. We had no information on any of the trails in the area, except for what appeared on the USGS and Gazateer maps. We just new we were adding a ton of climbing, and could only hope that no extra bushwhacking or postholing was included. What's another 2,000' of adventure when you're with friends?

The start of the true adventure

The trail leading away from the road was stellar...for the first 50 yards. My hopes of an obviously maintained trail were quickly dashed, but overall the trail conditions were great, if a bit faint at times. Based on the footprints more moose use the trail now than anything else, except for maybe during hunting season. 

The path alternately lead steep uphill, the switch backed, then traversed, then steep uphill again. I got the feeling that the route was a combination of old logging roads, game trails, and hunting paths from generations past. It was a pleasant bit of "running" though and we enjoyed the somewhat hidden rock formations and lush spring green (it was a long winter!) all while being misted by clouds threatening to do much more. 

Emerging onto windy the ridgeline from the safety of the trees

After nearly 3,000' we reached the high point of the trail and opted to bypass the summit of Inch Mountain on the way out, making McGuire the priority. We struggled a bit to find our running legs again as we descended down to the pass between Inch and McGuire, but made good time. A few times we passed through groves of shorter denser trees, which told the tale of the logging history in the area. 

A quick food break at the road fueled us for the initial climb up McGuire. Crossing the road not only meant that we began ascending again, but it also meant that the quality of trail drastically improved. Apparently McGuire Mountain is much more popular than Inch Mountain. After a mile or so we ran into the cut sides of a shallow quarry. A quick search of Montana mining claims lists this area as "unspecified claims" so we can only guess at what was mined, but both copper and gold were mined nearby. For us it was the first opening in the trees since we left the highway so we took some time to appreciate the additional visibility.

Summit of McGuire Mountain - Peak 32 of 64 in my Montana Mountain Project

The sky was still spitting at us as we continued and not long after the quarry we started seeing glacier lilies. A smattering of lilies quickly turned into the largest concentration of glacier lilies I have ever seen. A small field of solid yellow clung to a thin layer of duff along a rock layer, all of which would have been enjoyable, except that this was 1,000' lower than I hoped to see the little flower. Glacier lilies emerge just after the snow melts so if there are a bunch of glacier lilies one can surmise that the snow level is not much higher than where you are. We had enough climbing left to reach the summit that seeing glacier lilies told me we would soon be postholing.

Sure enough we found the snow a few minutes later. The last 1.5 miles to the ridge was a deep slog. Fortunately Seth has extra reserves of energy and broke trail for us the whole way. A few random feet of exposed trail and tree cuts helped us stay on the path, but otherwise it was a choose-your-own-adventure part of the day. The occasional bits of dirt we did see hinted at a well maintained trail: something that would be fun to come back and revisit when snow didn't cover it.

The best visibility we had on the plateau

The summit of McGuire Mountain consists of a long ridgeline with three high points. We made our way across the ridge through low, swirling, snow-filled clouds. The wind whipping against our already cold and wet legs promised to do long term damage if we lingered above treeline too long. We hurried across the ridge plateau as best we could considering the feeling in our toes was long gone and every third step gave way in the snow.

I caught a glimpse of the lookout tower, but otherwise the clouds obscured all visibility on top. At one point the Salish mountains had over 50 fire lookout towers, but with spotting planes and cell phones there is less need for manned towers. The one on McGuire Mountain is no longer used as a fire lookout, but is available for rent to weary travelers (reservations required). I wish we had known rental was a possibility because warming up away from the wind sounded like a grand idea at that time.

Working back along the ridge line as quick as possible

After a quick summit picture at 6991' we hurried back along the ridge line. The clouds parted below us for a quick glimpse of surrounding mountains and scars from old logging operations, but just as quickly we were back in the mist.

Our top priority was getting down low enough to be off the snow where we could let the thawing process take place. I can't say our descent was graceful, but we did get off that mountain pretty quick! Before too long we were back down to the road at the pass and climbing the lesser single track back up to Inch Mountain.

We think this is the top of Inch Mountain?

We opted to wander the quarter mile off trail to visit the summit of Inch Mountain. A short bit of jumping downfall allowed us to catch a game trail that took us to the top, or is that the top? Is this higher? Where's the top???

The summit of Inch Mountain consisted of four or five short hills spread across a 200 yard area. Each seemingly taller than the others around it, until you stood on top of it. Maybe that's how Inch got its name; each mound was an inch taller than the next.

Descending Inch Mountain along the cutting boundary

Although the Salish Mountains don't have the same prominence, or imposing rock faces of surrounding ranges, the trail system and easy (drive time is the hardest thing) access make for a fun way to get in some quality miles with stunning views. I say stunning views because the next morning we ventured up another peak and were able to see the far off Cabinets like they were only a few miles away. Standing on top of McGuire we would have been able to see the Flathead Range, the Whitefish Range, and the Cabinets. We had an adventure in the snow, but it's worth the trip to go when it's clear and have some fun as well.