©Voice, March 2007

Trail - Sperry Chalet - Glacier National Park, Montana
Start - Lake McDonald 3200 feet END - Sperry Chalet 6600 feet
Length - 6.5 mile one-way (3 hours in and 2 hours out)
Date Ridden - October 12, 2006
Riders - Rick and Cathy Wies
Horses – Gen’s Rainy Day Melody and Gunnar

Sperry Chalet was built in 1913 and remains rustic with no electricity, heat or running water. It is a dormitory with nineteen rooms and a dining hall and can only be reached by trail. Due to weather concerns it is only open eight weeks a year from mid July to mid September with a daily horse pack string providing supplies for the guests.

The trail starts out near the head of the 19-mile long Lake McDonald and right away you are into old growth forest of cedar and hemlock towering 150 feet. As a series of switchbacks make their way UP the base of Mount Brown you find about a mile up a left fork to Mount Brown Lookout and a tad further to the left the Synder Lake trail fork. At this point the trail drops down to the Crystal Ford on Snyder Creek and the first mountain creek crossing (1.8 mile). Just above the crossing to the right is the Fish Lake trail and the last trail junction until the Chalet.

It’s all UP from here and over the west ridge of Mount Edwards. As you round the ridge and ride into Sprague Creek valley the forest changes to pines, firs and larch. The trail finally levels out to some degree for a few miles as you traverse the south side of the ridge.

As the trail works its way up the Sprague Creek Valley the forest is ever changing and the trail becomes more and more rocky as the long switch back starts you up the rock mass of Mount Edwards and into view of Beaver Medicine Falls to the right.

A series of switchbacks take you up into the next little valley and the alpine forest above the falls. This section of the trail will make you pay attention and glad you have a very steady horse under you as you ride through rockslides and solid rock steps on a narrow trail. As the forest thins out you get your first sighting of the Sperry Chalet perched on a cliff just below Gunsight Mountain.

With about a mile and a half to go, from this first sighting, you continue along Mount Edwards until you ford Sperry Creek towards the top of the valley and up and along Gunsight Mountain to the Chalet.

–Rick Wies