Meagher County Highpoint Trip Report
Mount Edith
Date: July 11, 2008
Author: Edward Earl
The hike to Mount Edith’s summit is short and sweet with lots of recreational value.
I did it with my brother, who lives in Livingston MT, and he says that
Meagher is pronounced "Mar", half of this two-fer.
On US-12, at virtual mile post 11.6 (where mile posts start at 0 at the junction
with US-287 in Townsend and increase eastward), we turned north on North Fork Road,
which is well-graded gravel suitable for any street-legal vehicle.
Zero or note your odometer here. At 2.2 miles we turned right on Lippert Gulch Road.
At 2.9 miles we turned right on North Fork Road. At 4.2 miles, we crossed a
cattle guard and entered the Helena National Forest. At 4.3 miles we kept right
at a fork. There were a couple of spots in the next few miles where the road
was rutted and a vehicle without high clearance might get stuck if the driver
isn't careful to keep the wheels from falling into a rut but, other than that,
the road is still OK for any street-legal vehicle. At 9.9 miles, just as the
road rounds the crest of a ridge, we turned left into FR 423-F1 at a sign
indicating Edith Lake. At 10.8 miles we reached a small clearing where the road
turned 90 degrees left and its condition worsened and a vehicle without high
clearance may not make it much farther. At 11.3 miles, upon re-entering the
forest just after crossing a meadow, I encountered a rock large enough that I
decided to park here.
I hiked up the road, soon passing an old mining rig. The road continued across
another meadow, up a ridge, and re-entered a pine forest. After about a mile,
the road officially became trail #152, which switchbacked up the hillside and
finally traversed through the 9000+ ft saddle about 3/4 mile east of the summit of
Mount Edith. A short walk up alpine meadows soon brought us to the summit.
Climb statistics: 2,100 feet of gain, 3.5 hours round trip, not including the summit siesta.