Baldy Mountain
One of our destinations on day one was the fire lookout on Baldy Mountain (elevation 5,768 feet). From the lookout you can soak all the scenic beauty of the Purcells (and other nearby ranges) in. You can easily see Turner Mountain Ski Area, clear over to Idaho to the west and darn near to Canada to the north.
On top of Baldy Mountain was one of those naturally open areas where we played a lot. The snow was a little beat up in places but there had been enough storms over the previous weeks to cover most tracks, especially in the trees and many of the play pockets that were off the beaten path.
While the Baldy Mountain lookout was a highlight of day one’s ride, the highlight had to be riding to and playing in what the locals call Six Mile. It’s kinda, sorta near Flatiron Mountain (5,891 feet). Actually it’s about a drainage away from Flatiron. The snow was amazing and untouched and the terrain challenging but not taxing. So much fun. That spot along would be reason enough for us to want to return to Libby to ride. Seriously, it was that good. And while we spent a good amount of time playing there, even with our group of nearly a dozen riders we left a whole lot of snow untouched.
Whereas our first day of riding near Libby was clear and sunny, day two was overcast and snowy. At times we were riding in the clouds and other times just below the cloud cover, allowing us to see some of the surrounding mountains and drainages. We spent much of that day of riding accessing the hills and mountains from a backcountry road, having ditched the groomed trail not far from where we parked. The trees were farther apart in many areas we rode on day two. We played on a couple of open (ish) hillsides and found plenty of (again) untracked snow.