WESTERN MONTANA

Summary

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Atop Star Peak stands a fire lookout offering sweeping views of the Clark Fork river valley, surrounding Cabinet Mountains and in the distance, Lake Pend Oreille. This breathtaking view is well worth climbing the steep trail and offers frequent reprieves to stop and catch your breath or take a photo.

Trail Stats

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Trail Details

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Star Peak (or rather Historic Big Eddy) trailhead begins just off HWY 200 which happily means no long and dusty drive down a gravel road this time. Just a few hundred feet up from the HWY. There is no parking lot. There’s a nice little creek flowing down here though. It is bear country for those of you who are unaware. We simply took bear spray. Never saw a bear. Only saw one other person and their dog as we were headed down. Not exactly a high traffic hike on the weekdays at least.

The trail starts out as a single track that weaves through the trees. You’ll quickly ascend and have frequent views of the Clark Fork River and Reservoir below. Unless you’re in a hurry, the views are quite beautiful early on, take them in. Might as well enjoy your time outside.

Soon enough you’ll get to some steeper sections with switch backs. Always a good time. Keep on going.

We hiked as a group of four on this outing in the month of June. We had originally planned on other hikes but kept getting snowed out or came across roads that were simply not passable. For this hike we had great hopes, and it did not disappoint.

As we came closer to the summit there was definitely snow. There had been others before us so the trail was mostly visible though it did die out in a few places. I will say I am certainly over snow and all things winter long before June. Especially when it hampers my hiking plans.

Anyhow, soon enough the trail basically goes up a giant pile of rocks. You climb up, dip down and back up said rock pile and then you’re at the peak. There’s a set of stone stairs leading to the summit and the lookout. In the dip resides a cabin like building of some sort. Off to the side is an outhouse complete with cut out moon. I assume it’s useable but as I did not partake, I can’t really comment.

The lookout itself is pretty interesting. There’s a wrap around porch and there’s still a lot of old tools hanging in the “basement” below.

After soaking in the views and taking all the obligatory photo’s we decided lunch was in order and walked along the top to find comfortable rocky seating. Once the perfect rocks had been found we happily started devouring our flank steak bagel sandwiches. Complete with a hard boiled egg, cheese and whatever else I threw in there. Basically steak and eggs, right? So yummy!

Everything was perfect. The view. The company. The sandwich. The weather. So happy.

Happy until I looked down. Ensue instant wigging out. All of a sudden I’m jumping up, freaking out and doing that weird little get-it-off-me dance atop a mountain. My co hikers are all looking at me like I’m nuts. Doug has already risen and is trying to figure out what my deal is (good luck buddy, you get the rest of our lives to figure that out). All I can shriek/cry out is a repeated, “Ticks! Ticks!”. And there are. Hundreds of those revolting things. Crawling all over the rocks. Everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. A few got the ride of their life being flung off my person and backpack. Let me be clear. I hate ticks. They creep me out. I’m borderline paranoid. I firmly believe in doing tick checks on hikes. As a kid I ran around the woods care free and never once picked up a tick. As an adult they seem to like me a lot more. It’s not a feeling I reciprocate.

After annoying my co hikers with a forced tick check I finished my lunch in standing. On the entire way down I could practically feel them crawling all over me. The imagination can be brutal. That being said one of the ladies on our hike was halfway down the hill and found one crawling across her chest. Eww.

Despite the ticks this hike is well worth the elevation gain. You’ll earn your sandwich and enjoy spectacular views. And no, there were no photos of the ticks taken.

For another viewpoint, check out one of my favorite blogs, https://www.naughtyhiker.com/star-peak/