Stuart Peak- Rattlesnake Wilderness

M

mtwarden

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Sep 27, 2009
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Had a really busy (but great!) weekend, my wife and I ran the Pengelly Double Dip (me) and Single Dip (wife) race on Saturday- a grueling trail 1/2 marathon and 10k; We were both very satisfied with our efforts over a very demanding course, we took Sunday off, but Monday we decided to tackle Stuart Peak in the Rattlesnake Wilderness area- a 19 mile roundtrip hike w/ ~ 4000' of elevation gain

It's pretty neat that you can have a Wilderness Area a stone throw from one of our biggest cities (the trail head is 3 miles from town)

we both use small Osprey Talon 5.5 packs, just enough room to carry enough gear for a long day hike w/ a possibility of a forced overnight

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the wildflowers were wonderful- in this pic balasm root, paintbrush and larkspur

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a hint of things to come

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Wilderness boundary (about 7 miles in- you can see a little snow on the trail, much more to come!)

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getting into the snow in earnest

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when we finally hit the main ridge we could see Stuart Peak, about a 1/3 of a mile to go and all up

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at the top the views are wonderful

Upper Twin Lakes directly below the peak

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looking north

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you can see Missoula in this pic, as a crow flies, not very far at all

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on top of the world :)

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Beautiful pics. Man oh man I really want to visit Montana, that is definitely my kind of scenery!
 
Good stuff. Looking at your feet I'm wondering if you also use augmented traction with spikes / Trax / blah?
 
Thanks for sharing your hike with us, Mike :thumbup: Nice area, and solid day hike, only a couple of days after a 2.7k' climbed 1/2 marathon no less :thumbup::thumbup: Congrats to the Mrs. too for the Single Dip!

What fuel did you use for the race? Same Perpetuem mix? I have had opportunity to really use my Perpetuem solids recently, and the chewiness may get to be a bit much after a while for me. Jury is still out. When I tried the one solid from my buddy, it was just one tab and I thought the dry (then strangely gelatin-like chewiness) was fine. But when you're doing more than one tab over a period of time, the chewiness takes some getting used to I think, but not really worse than a Clif Blok IMO... just different. I've found it's best to swig some water after, to rinse out any stuck pieces or whatnot. I do still really appreciate not having to mix anything and having them stay good throughout hot weather. Anyway, I can't remember if you tried them or not yet, but if/when you do, I'd definitely try the 6-tab pack they sell first. It seems like for some folks, especially those used to doing the mix, the dry-then-chewy thing isn't very appealing.

ETA: Just looked up the course map for the Pengelly 1/2, there are some solid climbs up to the peaks there! :thumbup: And the finishing descent is steep, coming down to Hellgate Canyon.
 
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baldtaco-II said:
Good stuff. Looking at your feet I'm wondering if you also use augmented traction with spikes / Trax / blah?
Click to expand...

no, but both my wife commented that our Kahtoola's would have been handy :)

HikingMano said:
Thanks for sharing your hike with us, Mike :thumbup: Nice area, and solid day hike, only a couple of days after a 2.7k' climbed 1/2 marathon no less :thumbup::thumbup: Congrats to the Mrs. too for the Single Dip!

What fuel did you use for the race? Same Perpetuem mix? I have had opportunity to really use my Perpetuem solids recently, and the chewiness may get to be a bit much after a while for me. Jury is still out. When I tried the one solid from my buddy, it was just one tab and I thought the dry (then strangely gelatin-like chewiness) was fine. But when you're doing more than one tab over a period of time, the chewiness takes some getting used to I think, but not really worse than a Clif Blok IMO... just different. I've found it's best to swig some water after, to rinse out any stuck pieces or whatnot. I do still really appreciate not having to mix anything and having them stay good throughout hot weather. Anyway, I can't remember if you tried them or not yet, but if/when you do, I'd definitely try the 6-tab pack they sell first. It seems like for some folks, especially those used to doing the mix, the dry-then-chewy thing isn't very appealing.

ETA: Just looked up the course map for the Pengelly 1/2, there are some solid climbs up to the peaks there! :thumbup: And the finishing descent is steep, coming down to Hellgate Canyon.
Click to expand...

funny you should mention Perpetuem solids :) as there were aid stations, I wanted to go as light as possible and only used a handheld. That precluded my normal use of Perpetuem in a bottle (if I wanted water in the bottle :)), so I purchased some Perpetuem solids- I ate one (or tried to eat one) about a 1/2 hour in- it was really dry and very sticky/gummy- I didn't like them. I should have tried them beforehand, not during a race- I know better. Someone commented that they had better luck almost swallowing them whole instead of chewing them up, I'll probably give them another go, but at this juncture I prefer the powder mixed w/ water
 
mtwarden said:
no, but both my wife commented that our Kahtoola's would have been handy :)
Click to expand...

Definitely looked like they'd have been, with that sort of crusty snow.

mtwarden said:
funny you should mention Perpetuem solids :) as there were aid stations, I wanted to go as light as possible and only used a handheld. That precluded my normal use of Perpetuem in a bottle (if I wanted water in the bottle :)), so I purchased some Perpetuem solids- I ate one (or tried to eat one) about a 1/2 hour in- it was really dry and very sticky/gummy- I didn't like them. I should have tried them beforehand, not during a race- I know better. Someone commented that they had better luck almost swallowing them whole instead of chewing them up, I'll probably give them another go, but at this juncture I prefer the powder mixed w/ water
Click to expand...

Ha! Yeah, I'm surprised you tried them on a race! Oh well, now you know :D

The dry part didn't really bother me, it's the gummy chewiness (I do one tab every 20 min in the last 1/2 or 1/3 of the run/hike). I don't know about just swallowing them whole or even in pieces; it's big and it really is dry until your saliva hits it. I' may end up switching to just doing the mix, but I'm going to stick with the solids for a good stretch. I have a big bottle of it, so I know I'll give it a good trial run! :)

Hammer says it's best to break it up into smaller chunks, but I've found it more convenient to just toss the whole thing in my mouth and chew. I may indeed have to try breaking it up into smaller pieces again though to alleviate the jaw workout.
 
Very nice pictures and tour of your hike. Haven't been to Montana in years. You make me want to go back.
 
Thanks Warden :)

I've been to the RSW many times, but its been a few years.

We lived in Missoula for 10 years or so, but got tired of the city so we moved up into the mountains off grid @ 5200' 8 years ago :cool:
We're about 1 1/2 hr away now.
I avoid Missoula, or any city for that matter at all cost!
 
only in Montana (maybe Wy too) do we consider a town of 50,000 a big city :D

I don't think I'd ever live in Missoula either, but it is my alma mater so I'll have a soft spot for it
 
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