The Montana "Man Trip", part III: at and near McCart Lookout

Laura's Narration: The first night in McCart Lookout , the 3 Johns had a fitful night's sleep adding wood to the stove, but I slept through it.  I dreamed that I looked out the window of the tower and saw an elk.  After everyone woke up in the morning, I was disappointed because the railings of the tower wrap-around porch (catwalk) was reinforced with cables that prevented me from relieving myself from the top of the tower, as the Johns had done.  I begrudgingly pulled on my rain gear, descended the tower stairs, and trudged to the outhouse along the damp path.  After stepping over a log that had fallen across the trail, I looked up and saw an ominous figure in the mist behind the outhouse; it was a bull elk with huge antlers!  After a moment, the regal animal trotted off down into the woods, never acknowledging my presence.  It left me speechless and giddy.  The Johns were shocked when I told them and I decided that using the outhouse was not all bad, after all.

Here are some pictures from the top of the mountain.

Golden-mantled ground squirrels were abundant at McCart Lookout. Laura even saw one doing gymnastics, taking a dust bath under the tower on the first evening.

The firepit with grate was useful for grilling chicken tenderloin skewers and cooking whitefish in foil in the coals.

Lichen-covered rocks

Horse corrall

Lupines!

Great view of the lookout tower from the outhouse trail

John's narration: The McCart Lookout has been restored to a somewhat vintage setup with an old crank phone and some of the equipment used when it was an active lookout.  Two of us shared the bed and two slept on the floor.

After a hot breakfast, we hiked down to the car and drove into Darby for a fishing trip that will be detailed in a different post.  

Beargrass can get as tall as your hips and has impressive blooms.

An orchid we found on our hike down from the tower.  It is most likely a Fairy Slipper (Calypso sp.).

There was a beautiful view from the meadow on top of the hill, just at the trailhead, where we parked our car.

I had seen a snipe on a post on the way to the tower the day prior.  He was there again when we drove by to go fishing.  He didn't flush this time, so I was able to capture him vocalizing some breeding calls.  Other snipe could be heard winnowing over the wet meadow behind him.  If you listen carefully to the video, you'll hear the winnowing near the end.

Fishing was a great experience, one that I will explain more about in the next post.  After fishing, we got a few supplies (and some ice cream) in Darby and headed towards the Martin Creek campground to make use of the potable water hand pump.  We rinsed off a bit and intended to fill our water jugs, but the water was rusty brown and tasted like it looked.  Potable water is potable water, I thought to myself...  ...until we drove over a crystal clear creek just outside the campground.  We dumped the jugs and refilled them with creek water using our Sawyer filter.  It took a few minutes, but tasted much better.

The time had come.  We were back at the trailhead and were going to have to hike back up to the tower.  Luckily, we had a lot less to carry this time.  Just some steaks, water, and a few other items.  It would have been a pleasant hike if not for the lightning and hail storm that caught us about 1/3 of the way up the trail.  The two rainsuits we had didn't suffice for the four of us and most of the hike was done soaking wet and a bit cold.  I eventually sent Laura and Johnny ahead to start a fire while I ambled along with Uncle John and really appreciated that decision when I got to the tower and felt the warmth of the wood stove.  Laura and Uncle John cooked steaks to warm our souls while Johnny and I split firewood downstairs under the shelter of the tower.  I was glad that my friend Luke had taught me how to chop wood last year, and now I got to pass that knowledge on to Johnny.  There's hope for us city slickers after all.

Rain had dodged us for the first several days of the trip.  I took a chance, coming at the end of the rainy season, but had hoped that it wouldn't last the whole time.  In the long run, we were repaid for the initial dreary days with great weather for the later portion of the trip.

To be continued...

- John (and Laura)

Laura's wildlife list:

McCart Lookout and area:

bull Elk!

Ravens

Robins

4 Grey Jays

4 large yellow Warblers with simple song

tons of Ground Squirrels that look like chipmunks

4 Mountain Chickadee (heard)

4 Western Tanagers

1 Mallard

2 Wilson's Snipe

1 Kingbird

Red-Winged Blackbird

4 Scaup

1 Northern Shoveler

1 Northern Pintail