Created 21-Jun-20
Modified 20-Dec-23
20200606 | Thrift Peak, Livingstone Fire Lookout | 2173m Max | 1389m TH | 23km | 1848m TA | w/ Peter & David
2020 Super Saturday season opener. This was such a memorable day, right from the gorgeous drive, to the many outstanding flowers, skulls, big firs... summiting was almost secondary.
Our original plan was to access via Ranch roads and come up Camp creek but the rancher we met told us that access had been closed. So we parked at the Bob Creek staging area instead which we immediately realized was going to extend our day. Aside from some time on quad/horse trails, much of the day was going up or down thru forest and open range land and rocky ribs and ridges off trail. Some of it ridiculously steep. Reaching the fire lookout required crossing some lingering snow near the peak. The lookout wasn’t manned yet but we used the catwalk to get out of the wind for lunch. I was pretty tired at that point with the GPS reading over 1500m of gain and at least one more significant ridge to climb over on the way out. Careful with the left knee!
Highlights for the day: Big fir trees, (BIG FIR, BIG FIR, BIG FIR) apparently over 600 years old, in the sheltered valleys and lee slopes but some right out in the open exposed to the elements. Lots of very showy wildflowers like arrowleaf balsam root, prairie smoke, crocus, shooting stars, glacier lilies to name a few. I found an ungulate skull and what I think is a partial raven skull. Overall I really liked the area and aside from some horse packers and two guys way off in the distance near the end we didn’t see a soul.
© Clayton Ditzler
