Fogged in en route to Huckleberry Lookout

As increased snowfall in Glacier National Park makes backcountry travel less accessible, last week I made one last attempt to reach a fire lookout that I hoped would give excellent views of the surrounding mountains.

With the only weather window for the foreseeable future, my hopes were to reach the Huckleberry Mountain lookout before the clouds came in. My optimism however, quickly dwindled at the start of the hike, as glimpses of the distant mountains were vague and shrouded in clouds. There were several cars and prints of snowshoe hikers and skiers tracks ahead of me.

From the trailhead, wearing snowshoes, I began my hike. Although there were plenty of downfallen trees, the increased amount of snow made hiking actually easier than my previous attempt a few weeks earlier.

The trail to the lookout starts out flat, but quickly begins a long, slow gain in elevation for about four miles. There are no switchbacks, but with snow underfoot, caution must be taken on several sections of the trail, where there is also risk of avalanche danger.

After about two miles, I heard the crunching of snow ahead, and quickly dashed out of the way as a snowboarder flew by on the trail. We waved acknowledging each other, and I kept hiking where I met his friend in snowshoes. He explained they turned around where the trail began to narrow.

After I passed the point where they had turned around, I noticed only one track of skis in the snow, but I was not sure if he would continue to the lookout as I had planned. When I did catch up to where he stopped, there was a large run through the trees that he had skied down, as well as skin tracks from where he came back up the mountain.

I continued on from this point for about another mile, breaking trail through the snow and taking my best guess as to where the trail would be. Although I could see clouds not far ahead of me, I was able to see back almost to the car, and most of the surrounding mountains.

As I read on the map, the trail to Huckleberry lookout leads to a final ridgewalk that overlooks the entrance to the North Fork. However, when I was within half a mile of this ridge section the clouds began to grow thicker. The temperature began to drop as well, and I realized there would be little to gain in further progress. I snapped a photo to try and represent how much the visibility had decreased, which was about 30 feet at the time of my turn around.

I also realized that continuing would be futile since it had taken me about four hours to travel four miles, and I did not have enough time to make it to the lookout and back to the car before dark.

In total, I hiked for approximately five and a half hours for eight miles there and back and 2,064 feet in elevation gain.