Bare Peak Overlook (Nelson Ridge)

I went up Bare Peak Overlook on Tuesday, July 19th, and almost forgot to post this! I had actually planned on going to Bare Peak, but changed my mind last minute. Partly because I had gotten a late start in the day, and this is a mighty long drive from Missoula, and partly because I knew it would be a hot day, and my dog, Xena (or Z.Z., [XeXe] as I've recently taken to calling her) gets overheated quite quickly, and I can only bring so much water. If there had been more water on the trail, she could go forever! 
The drive there is WAAAAY up the West Fork. South of Darby, you take the West Fork up 14 miles to the Nez Perce turnoff. I wish I had written down the miles, but I didn't, and almost a week later, I can't remember what I did. There is, however, a sign that points you right up to the Nelson Lake Trailhead. I think the name was Nelson-Rimmel, or something like that. I'll fix this when I figure it out.  Anyway, the drive to the trailhead is about 5 miles from there. The problem is, the road keeps going a ways, so just remember, after you see the sign about halfway up this road to the trailhead, it's only about 2.3 miles to it. It's just around a switchback, and the only sign marking it is a "Put your fire out," sign....little tricky.
Ok, the hike: this one is short, just over 3 miles, but really steep almost the whole way. There is a fork in the trail about 1.5 miles up, but I didn't see it. I had started down toward the lake before I realized that couldn't be right. I turned around and headed back up to see a "kind of" fork. This is what it looked like:

The rock and tree across the trail you're supposed to take up is a dead give-away....I guess. If you miss this, you'll be heading to the right, and it's obvious you're starting down the mountain. As I got here and kept going up, I kind of lost the trail, mostly because of a little deadfall. If you stay close to the ridge line, it's no problem. I didn't realize till the way down that there is a pretty good trail the whole way. It seriously didn't make a difference. It was quite straight forward. 

First sighting of Nelson Lake

I believe that's Bare Peak in the distance

A small amount of rock scrambling on
the way back down

As I was coming back down, I thought, "I still have plenty of daylight left," so I decided to head down to the lake. I knew Xena would love it, she gets giddy around water. The more I climbed down, the more I dreaded the climb back up. It was probably close to another 2 miles to get down there, and I was not happy to see what was in front of me. The lake had a pretty steep bank all around it, as far as I could tell, and I had just decided I was done for the day. There really wasn't a trail anywhere around it, so I turned around, and much to Xena's chagrin, headed back up. 

About as close as I got to the lake

It was a beautiful day, and if I felt like I had more time, I would have investigated whether or not I could have gotten down there a little more. Oh, well, I hit a new summit, so I was quite satisfied either way. The hike up to Bare Peak Overlook was about 3 miles, with an elevation gain of 2558.