Crown Point Road + Larch Mt. off-trail

[Don Nelsen]

I got together with Peabody on Tuesday for an end-of-the-year hike along the Crown Point Road. I had never hiked down there so was very interested. Also, he had some info he spotted on lidar of what he thought might be evidence of an old wagon road on larch Mt. + some other things up there so off we went.

We hiked the road all the way to the RR line and also followed a couple of old driveways finding lots of interesting things. The area is surprisingly open and off-trail hikeable – lots of history there. Peabody’s done some great research and even had a copy of the original 1889 plat map of the road. I’ll go back and explore some more for sure.



This is a 1949 Studebaker convertible a little the worse for wear!


After the first hike we headed up Larch Mt. Rd. to just past MP 9 to check out the possible wagon road. Found it easily but still not sure if it was a wagon road or yet another skid road. Whatever it was, still a great off-trail adventure as we headed over to Camp A and then down a couple of skid road tracks to the remains of some huge old steam-era logging equipment I found a few months ago.

Here's Peabody checking out some old boots at Camp A:



Of course what would a hike on Larch be without some old logging equipment!



Here's the map of the Crown Point Road with our wanderings:

[Splintercat]

Hey, that's cool, Don! I've seen several references to that road, but never have been able to make sense of the LIDAR. That's one of the coolest Missoula/Bretz features in the area -- the "cirque" that formed between Crown Point and Chanticleer Point, that is. I'll bet there are erratics in the bench located in the cirque (under the rainforest blanket). Looks like you wandered around on the west end of the bench a bit?

In your opinion, how difficult would it be to open a trail following the old road bed? Is the entire grade intact?

Great report!

Tom

[mandrake]

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[Don Nelsen]

Hey, that's cool, Don! I've seen several references to that road, but never have been able to make sense of the LIDAR. That's one of the coolest Missoula/Bretz features in the area -- the "cirque" that formed between Crown Point and Chanticleer Point, that is. I'll bet there are erratics in the bench located in the cirque (under the rainforest blanket). Looks like you wandered around on the west end of the bench a bit?

In your opinion, how difficult would it be to open a trail following the old road bed? Is the entire grade intact?

Great report!

Tom

Tom,

Yes, very interesting geology - we were fascinated by the huge basalt columns in one spot and noted interesting areas of ash or tuff with embedded river rocks in some of the road cuts. I'll bet the flood waters turned it into a gigantic whirlpool during the higher floods. We wandered off the main road on two different grades that likely were once driveways - most of the terrain is easily hiked off-trail with mostly open forest.

The entire grade is completely clear and in good enough shape to drive most of it. It makes a great little hike - RT from the gate at the top to the RR tracks is 3.6 miles and about 750' vertical.

-Don

[Peabody]

What a way to end 2013! Thanks Don, I really enjoyed the personal tour of Camp "A" and the other logging relics on Larch. Mmmm do you think REI would let us return those boots?

[Don Nelsen]

Nice! I wandered down that way long ago. It was a really wet & muddy day so I named the route the Chanticleer swamp trail. Seem to recall a lot of stuff being dumped down from the road above... and finding some bamboo out there.

Splintercat: the main road down to the RR line was pretty well graded & easy to follow. Looks like there may have been intentions to make it into a more bonafide road at some point -- seem to remember seeing some preliminary drains along the way, etc.

Yep, lots of dumped stuff an early 60's chevy, a volkswagon, a regular treasure trove!

The bamboo patch is near the 49 Studebaker at what looked like it once a home site. Surprisingly, the bamboo hasn't spread beyond a ten foot wide patch or so.

dn

[K.Wagner]

Don,

I am a little confused (how easily that happens these days!), did you start up near Chanticleer Pt, or down on 84?

[Don Nelsen]

Don,

I am a little confused (how easily that happens these days!), did you start up near Chanticleer Pt, or down on 84?

We parked at Women's Forum viewpoint at took the road down from there. I suppose you could park along the freeway but that would necessitate trespassing across the RR right of way. The road goes all the way to I84 directly across from Rooster Rock.

dn

[woodswalker]

Hi, so it sounds like it was the road that leads down out of Chanticleer parking lot? If so there definitely was cabin site up there once. I had a friend who lived up there in the late seventies and early eighties while he helped work on trying to get some kind of Federal Protection status for the gorge.
I'm loving all the old road trip reports! Always more to explore. Thanks all.
Woodswalker

[Don Nelsen]

What a way to end 2013! Thanks Don, I really enjoyed the personal tour of Camp "A" and the other logging relics on Larch. Mmmm do you think REI would let us return those boots?

Very enjoyable hike and thanks so much for suggestive the hike down Crown Point Road!

Hmmmm.... I think the boots predate REI by 40 years or more - but you could always give it a try

dn