Montana Outdoor Adventures: Gash Point, Bitterroot Selway Wilderness , Victor, MT

Traveling to Gash Point Trail 122 took quite a while from the town of Stevensville, over an hour and a half. They say you can park at the trail head but I opted to park at a larger spot a couple hundred feet down the road. The hike starts off easy enough skirting the south edge of a hill, but you will want to watch your footing as the trail is skinny at times and its easy for your foot to slip off the side if you're not paying attention. Approximately a half a mile in it gets wet this time of year (late June) from run-off. After that starts the ascent up through the fallen trees and burned remains of the 2006 fire. Over a mile and a half in the trail all but disappears, you'll be fine though if you keep an eye out for cairns and keep heading up hill toward the point. Approximately 2.4 miles in the land levels out a bit, and this is as far as we could make it due to snow, but bouncing shouts off of the south west peaks provided for much entertainment as we took a break for lunch. On the way down we ventured over to some rock outcroppings towards the north, definitely worth it while you are there.

The hike is classified as 'strenuous' by many books but didn't feel bad although we couldn't make it to the top. We pulled 2.4 miles with an elevation gain of 2417ft (from 5771 ft to 8194 ft) and an average grade of 19.2%. Gash Point is listed at approximately 8860 ft and a total length of approximately 7 miles but my topo maps show that we were approximately .6 of a mile from the peak (as the crow flies).

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