Triangle Peak, Rattlesnake Wilderness

McCleod Peak from Triangle Peak, along the northern edge of the Rattlesnake Wilderness.

An item at the top of my to do list this summer was to summit Triangle Peak, which is the next peak east from McCleod Peak along the northern edge of the Rattlesnake Wilderness. It's easy to postpone such a difficult trip; probably the best way to get there is to bike back the 14 miles to the Wilderness boundary along the Rattlesnake corridor road and then continue on foot four miles, on the Rattlesnake Creek trail, until it peters out, at which point you head east/northeast up a steep slope, through a burn all the way to the summit. Take a map! See my Strava of the trip from the Rattlesnake Trailhead to the summit at the end of this blog.

Whenever I make it that far back into the Rattlesnake, I'm struck by how wild it is and how far I am from civilization. At one point, on the way down from the summit, hiking through the burn down a steep slope, I thought, "If something were to happen to me here, I don't know if I would even be found." It's remarkable that we Missoulians can access such wildness so easily. Anyway, it was a good way to end the summer. Work started for me the next day.
   

The Missions in clouds.

McCleod again.

Stuart Peak (left) and Mosquito Peak, I think (right).