Josh's friend Chad has a 5th Gen. 4Runner that just got a lift, and he was looking to test it out. So this past Sunday we loaded up the FJ and went out to one of our favorite day-trips, Montana Mountain. This would also be a great trip to test out my new camera, the Heidi-proof Olympus Stylus Tough 8010. It had been a while since we were out at the Mountain, so we were really looking forward to the drive. Montana Mountain is a fairly easy (depending on weather conditions) but very scenic drive that starts just outside Florence Junction and loops around ending in Superior. We packed a lunch and headed out to meet Chad to begin our journey for the day.
The trail starts out on smooth dirt. Soon we came upon a couple of old 1st Gen 4Runners, who turned off into a sandy wash. The map looked like we might be able to take this alternative route up to the trail ahead, so we followed them, but we dead ended at a fence. There was a turn-off to the right but we decided to head back to the main trail and continue to follow the actual gps tracks we had. But not after checking out the hot new 4Runner, lift and tires. Soon we were back on the road and the scenery just got better and better. It was a beautiful day to be out.
We made a quick stop at a local cattle pin complete with windmill and lots of signs about what you should and should not be doing in the area. As we continued on, the road started to climb a little faster to the top of the mountain with lots of switchbacks, but still fairly tame. We came across several people out enjoying the day on their motorcycles and several tourists with plates from New York, Canada and Florida.
We made another rest stop at a pull off and I was able to capture Chad's first flex photos!! Go Chad!
And again with the amazing views.
We stopped for lunch on a beautiful overlook just before reaching the peak of Montana Mountain. It was a little windy but the view was great and we were ready for a break. After enjoying our lunch we continued to what would be the north side of the mountain making the loop to head back south and to Superior. The last time we were out here there had been a couple of icy patches on the trail because of the shadow from the mountains not allowing the sun to hit directly. Considering the weather we have had in the last month we were expecting to run into the same, maybe a little bit of snow. Soon we found it.
Not so bad, but then we hit our first icy section. I could not even get out of the truck to inspect it because the entire ground underneath me was frozen. No problem, we will carry on very slowly. Besides, this section of the trail is pretty short and it can't get any worse right? We figured just around the next corner would be clear. Well, it wasn't. Every corner we went around got worse and worse, more and more snow and ice. I was out trying to take pictures in a safe place in case one of the trucks lost control, and Josh and Chad were just taking it slow trying to not roll down the mountain.
When we thought it couldn't get worse we came across this section that was nothing but 4-5 inches of frozen ice. No snow anywhere to grab traction on. Josh tried in vain to break up as much as he could with the pulaski. At this point we had no other choice but to carry on. There was nowhere to turn around and even if we could there was no way we would get traction to go back on the trail which was now decending.
Finally, we made it! The trail began to take a turn south and more and more sunlight was hitting turning the snow and ice to slush and mud. We passed the two 1st gen 4Runners who were taking a break at an overlook...there must be a shortcut somewhere! The road became much more narrow as we decended down off the mountain on extremely tight switchbacks, but we were happy to be back on dry, dusty dirt. We took a quick detour to the cabin ruins, and soon we were popping out just outside Superior by what looked like a very old, but still running mining operation.
We have always wanted to try the supposedly awesome pizza joint in Superior, but we were all ready to head back home so thats another adventure that would just have to wait. All in all it was a great day - the weather was perfect, we avoided any disasters and I think Chad had a good first off-road experience in his new truck.
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