18-Aug-2017 -- While driving south from Helena, Montana to Idaho Falls, Idaho, I had my eye on two ‘forgotten’ Degree Confluence Points. 46N 112W looked like it would take too long to visit, so I decided to leave that for some other time. I decided instead to focus on this point - previously visited just once, back in May 2002.

I turned off Forest Service Road 100 (Ruby River Road) onto a doubletrack at 45.02255°N 111.96960°W. The previous visitors weren’t able to drive up this road, because (to protect calving elk) it’s closed to motorized traffic from April through June. Fortunately it’s OK to drive up this road in August, so I saved almost 1000 vertical feet of hiking. At 45.00736°N 111.99134°W the trail was closed to further motorized traffic, so I parked here (at about 7000’ elevation). This was 0.6 miles from the point.

Being sure to carry bear spray with me, I started hiking towards the point. Fortunately a marked trail - "Gilbert Trail No. 51” - headed in the direction of the point, and ended up passing just 0.2 miles north of the point. I then started ‘bushwhacking’ through the forest. Due to the elevation, this final 0.2 miles was a bit tougher than I’d expected. I climbed up a slope, descended into a small ravine (at about 300 feet from the point), then climbed up another slope. The point lay near the top of the slope, among pine trees. This was at about 7300’ elevation.