Coal Ridge | North Fork Preservation Association

It seems the Coal Ridge “patrol cabin” was actually the original lookout up there. Anyways, it got new siding last week to go with the roof that was installed a couple of years ago . . .

An historic lookout up the North Fork on Coal Ridge received some badly needed care last week as Forest Service crews installed new siding on the weather-beaten building.

The Coal Ridge Lookout, which has sat atop the Whitefish Range since 1928, doesn’t resemble a lookout — the current map actually calls it a cabin. It has small windows, and the Osborne Fire Finder used to pinpoint fire starts was mounted on a metal pole outside of the building.

But it was a definitely a fire lookout, Flathead National Forest lookout Leif Haugen said.

Read more . . .

For more information on this project, go to http://www.nwmt-ffla.org/#!2014-projects/c1nlq and scroll down to the “Moran Patrol Cabin” section.

The gate at the foot of Moran Basin Road is open again, restoring access to the trail to the old Coal Ridge lookout and points nearby. The trail should be in good shape. Earlier this year, a forest service crew cleaned it up. They also performed maintenance on the old patrol cabin.

Moran Basin Road is the second left heading westbound on Hay Creek Road. The Coal Ridge trailhead is about three miles up Moran Basin Road, just before the terminating “kelly hump.”

Update: This summer’s crew did more than just clean up the trail to Coal Ridge, they performed major renovations to the old “pray-and-scramble” trailhead, replacing it with a couple of well-designed short switchbacks. Nicely done.