Mineral County Highpoint Trip Report

BM Quartz

Date: July 29, 2004
Author: Tim Worth

This part of the Bitteroots features more Appalachianesque topography with lower peaks, but the valleys are really, really deep and the terrain is densely forested.

Following the existing report, I parked at the gate on FR 7789. I hiked the road as it contoured around Sunrise Mountain and other unnamed lumps for 4.5 miles. The NEW topographic maps and topozone show the road ending prior to reaching Windfall Creek but the OLD topo map shows the route continuing into the Windfall Creek valley, which it does before completely deteriorating around a half mile northeast of Windfall Lake.

From here it's a short but steep bushwhack though burn devastation 600 vertical feet up to the ridge separating Landowner Mountain and Quartz Peak, from which it's an easy hike south on a trail to the HP. I found Quartz BM 1956 and left a register.

For the descent, I elected to head down the ridge running northeast from the summit, and then rejoin FR 7789. This bushwhack was pretty smooth for a while but I ran into steep, brushy terrain (contours in middle of section 32) and was reduced to lowering myself using vegetation for much of the roughly 500 foot drop.

Hike statistics: 6 hours, 11 miles, elevation gain 2,000 feet.