Babcock Mountain

I found this hike in the Rock Creek area and from what I read, it was three miles up. Great, because I was being lazy this Sunday morning and didn't even get to the trailhead till 1:00. What I have learned about myself this year:  I'm not good at doing my homework. I really never was, so this shouldn't have come as a big surprise! The trail, itself, is three miles long. It then hits an old logging road, which you can take most of the rest of the way, if you want to reach the summit, or you can go straight up. Looking up, however, it looked VERY steep, so up the logging road it was! What I thought was going to be a 6 mile round trip hike turned into about 11 miles. That didn't bother me at all, except that I didn't bring enough food. Usually, I need to eat a good portion of the hike up, just to keep my energy going. By the time I finished, which was before 6:00 pm, I was famished! I really need to quit being so lazy about my homework!

 To get here, take the Rock Creek exit from I-90, then just after the 2 mile marker is Trail 10 on the left. There is a parking area just past that on the right. At the very beginning it is incredibly steep. I mean, on your tip-toes and leaning way forward steep! Don't let that discourage you, though, it's only for less than a tenth of a mile. After that, the going feels like a gentle slope up. I hardly noticed putting much effort in, except you can see the creek and road below pretty much the whole way, and can tell you're gaining quite a bit of elevation.

Once you come to the first old logging road you'll see this sign on your left:

I believe it's pointing back down to the trail you just walked up. I thought this was the logging road to follow but noticed it was headed back down. I kept checking my navigation app, and it looked right at first, but I slowly started to see that it was just a little off where I should be. Sometimes that happens, so I went just a little too far before turning back to where the sign is. From there, you just have to go straight up through some brush, and in a minute or two, you'll find the right logging road. It is in much better shape than the first one you meet. It seems to go pretty far out of the way before switching back, then switching back again. Just a little into that last switch back, you need to go off the road and pretty much straight up and in that same direction. This is what I did, and it seemed to be the least steepish area to get to the summit. Once on the summit, I could really see that the smoke in what I'm going to blame on Idaho, was wafting through pretty badly. The pictures aren't as good as I was hoping. I had read you could see the Mission Mountains, as well as Lolo Peak. I guessed at Lolo Peak, it didn't look like what I'm used to seeing, but I'm pretty sure about the Missions, although both pictures are pretty hazy.

This is the route I took. The red arrow shows where I started down the wrong logging road and turned back. Don't do that. The pink arrow shows where I jumped off the logging road and headed up. From this topo map, it looks like the least steep area to get that done. It was still a little steep, but not for long.

The Missions, way back there

I wanna say Lolo Peak, in the right direction, but not sure

The beautiful Rock Creek below

A, what would have been less than 11 mile hike, with an elevation gain of 2822. Not sure how my navigation app mathematically gets 2750 of elevation gain....someone should explain that to me! Until next time....Happy hiking!