In summer 2020, I came across a list of sixteen Missoula horizon peaks assembled by our fine local mountaineering club, the Rocky Mountaineers. There were several peaks that I hadn't done, and it seemed like it would be interesting to finish them off. After mulling it over a bit, I realized that it would be more rewarding and fun to do all of them human powered from the house. Here is a brief summary of the peaks, listed clockwise as viewed from town. One interesting observation is that with the exception of Jumbo, University and Sentinel, every peak to house outing that I can recall has been solo. Maybe I need to invite friends on my more random adventures. For the record, according to the club, I am not the first person to complete these peaks in this style. Too many cagey local veterans getting after it. I heartily recommend the project.
Point Six Many ski outings on this fine local mountain, and I am actually excited to ski it house to house in the spring some time, but of the four house-to-house outings, the two most memorable were during the Furlough tour, and the first time I biked it from the house in August 2020. Point Six is one of the best longer gravel bike rides in the area, in my opinion.
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| Heading down to the bike during a long link up of local peaks in November, 2013. |
Stuart Peak Only three house to house outings that I can recall. The first one was a long run in summer 2012, when I was first getting into trail running. I also did it for time in summer 2020, biking casually to the trailhead, biking fast for me to the Wilderness boundary, then running to the top before reversing the route.
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| Normal summit photo. |
Sheep Mountain I usually get lazy and drive to the Rattlesnake trailhead when running Sheep, and can only recall five house to house outings. The most memorable was actually in early September 2021 when I biked the Blue point/Sheep/East Fork/Corridor kind of sort of as hard as I could, making the loop in 3.31. I hadn't biked Sheep in many years, and was reminded how ridable the climb is, and how old-school awesome the loop is as a bike ride.
Mount Jumbo Many times on this special mountain.
Woody Mountain I had skied from the summit on two previous occasions, but never human powered from the house. I biked up from Bonner and walked to the summit on Labor day 2020 before descending Mittower and proceeding to tackle University, which resulted in a magnificent bonk and subsequent slow grovel to the summit.
University Mountain Many times. University is still my favorite Missoula trail run, and biking up from Pattee is one of my favorite bike rides.
Mount Sentinel Many times on this special mountain. What a gem to have on the immediate outskirts of town.
Mount Dean Stone On election day, 2020, I biked out to Miller creek, up to Legacy point, then climbed to the summit by linking up logging roads on Nature Conservancy land. It's a nice 4 - 5 hour outing from Miller, but now that the amazing trail is in place directly from town, a climb from the house would be even easier and higher quality.
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| Heading up to Legacy point on the way to Dean Stone. |
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| Big tower, little bike on Miller. |
Lolo Peak I skied Lolo human powered from the house in June 2020. It is really not a terribly difficult outing, and I made it to the summit in fine shape, and added some runs to make it into a tiring but excellent 10k ski day. The bike home was surprisingly easy and not too long. On Juneteenth, 2021, I drove out to the bottom of the Mormon peak road and did it as a bike to ski outing, which was excellent and highly recommended way to ski Lolo peak.
Blue Mountain Many times. Not from the house, but the most memorable summit by far was when Leah went into labor on the summit, and a close second was biking to the top from the upper gate with Sam four years later.
Black Mountain November 2020, the day the election was called for Biden. I biked up O'brien creek and waked up from the trails above O'brien creek. Not the best of outings, but enjoyable enough to do again for sure.
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| Fall mood on Black Mountain. |
Petty Mountain I have climbed Petty a half dozen times as a trial run from Petty creek, but that includes a 40-minute drive. It is a great, seldom seen mountain with unique views. It is also kind of a doozy to do from the house. My only outing was in fall 2020 at the end of the Grave Growler bike ride. I enjoyed the growler enough to do again, so hopefully I'll have many more house to house outings on Petty.
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| On the excellent single track section of the Growler and closing in on Petty. |
Stark Mountain This was the last peak that I did, in no small part because it is so far from town. I finally did it as a long bike-run-bike outing on a rainy day in June, 2021. I managed to get a terrible flat on my gravel bike only about four miles from the house, and Leah graciously brought my mountain bike out for a bike change. It was kind of a grind all the way out to Ninemile on a mountain bike, but I made do. I did manage to get terribly chaffed, so the return run and bike was a bit stingy, but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of finally completing the Horizon peak project!
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| Last downhill of the last peak of the project. |
Ch-Paa-Qn In early September, 2019, I biked to the Reservation divide using the Sixmile road, ran the peak with Jeffrey, then biked out the Butler loop and back to town. I was pretty surprised at how moderate the outing was. I think that doing the peak as an extension of the Butler/Sixmile bike loop is a top notch local outing.
Charity Peak I forced this one into a chilly December afternoon in 2020. I wasn't very excited to throw down with heavy traffic on Highway 89, so I biked out to Mill creek, up the Black Cat road, then slogged it out through shin deep snow to the top. Said shin deep post holing took some time, and I may have biked all the way back from Frenchtown in the dark, but fortunately the biking is actually pretty safe thanks to the frontage road bike path. This is definitely one mountain I would have not otherwise ever climbed.
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| On top of Charity! |
