Challenge Cabin

The way to Challenge Cabin begins at a plowed area along U.S. Highway 2, fifty-one miles east of Hungry Horse. The car stays there. Skyland Road #569 runs south from the highway, and in winter it is a groomed snowmobile trail. The cabin stands eight miles down it, and visitors cover the distance on skis, on snowshoes, on snowmobiles, or on foot. The Flathead National Forest manages the cabin through its Hungry Horse-Glacier View Ranger District, and its page states the matter flatly: “You cannot drive to Challenge Cabin.” Recreation.gov places the cabin about 60 miles southeast of Hungry Horse and gives the trail as approximately eight miles. The cabin rents from December 1 through March 31. It is not available from April 1 to November 30.

A cabin in the Challenge Creek meadow

The cabin sits in a meadow inside a stand of Douglas fir and pine, near Challenge Creek. To the east, the ranger district is bordered by the Middle Fork of the Flathead River and by Glacier National Park.

Inside are a table and chairs, a bunk bed, and a small loft where additional people roll out sleeping bags. The party limit is five. There is a propane cook stove, and there are lights, which the Forest Service asks renters to use sparingly to conserve propane. A wood stove heats the room, and firewood is supplied for it. Visit Montana’s listing also names a small refrigerator. Basic pots and utensils are on hand, though guests are encouraged to bring their own. A vault toilet stands outside.

The cabin has no water, electricity, or sewer. Renters carry in water for drinking, cooking, and washing. Visit Montana gives the reason: the creek nearby freezes over. Renters also bring food, bedding, flashlights, garbage bags, and basic camp gear. The nearest groceries are in East Glacier and Hungry Horse, each about an hour and a half by car once the trek out is done.

Grizzly bears live in the area. Food, beverages, coolers, and garbage are kept inside the cabin. Because the cabin may stand empty for long stretches, mice may be present, and trapping supplies are kept inside. The door is held by a combination lock. According to Recreation.gov, the code comes in the reservation confirmation letter. Visit Montana says renters should call the ranger district within seven days of the reservation to get it. The sources also disagree on dogs. The Forest Service and Recreation.gov allow pets, while Visit Montana’s listing says pets are not allowed at Challenge. Before leaving, renters clean the cabin, pack out their trash, and replenish the wood supply for the next party.

Horses on the divide, 1954

The Hungry Horse News of October 8, 1954, carried a photograph of Challenge cabin taken September 30, with snow on the ground. The paper placed the cabin on the Middle Fork drainage, within three miles of the Continental Divide and 6½ miles by trail from U.S. No. 2.

The Flathead National Forest’s Forest Advisory council had camped there overnight on its annual fall trip. The members mounted their horses just off the highway near the divide, where the snow was six inches deep. The next day, October 1, they stopped at Morrison creek, between Challenge cabin and Schafer ranger station, to water the horses. They rode on into Schafer. On Sunday they rode 26 miles across the mountains from Schafer to Spotted Bear station. Along the way they looked at a spruce bark beetle infestation, at stands of lodgepole, yellow pine, larch, and fir, and at the country’s water resources. The year before, on an 80-mile ride from Holland lake, the men had fished. In 1954 they did not, but they saw a few elk. On the last day they inspected the new Firefighter lookout on Firefighter mountain, above Hungry Horse reservoir.

The paper named the riders. Council members were Fred Broeder, Jr., of Creston; Stanley Halvorson, H. G. Mebust, and Charles Hash of Kalispell; and Mel Ruder of Columbia Falls. John Hauer rode in place of member Larry O’Neil of Kalispell. Also along were Stuart Swenson, Supervisor F. J. Neitzling, Ranger Charlie Shaw, and Bill Chilton, packer of the Flathead National Forest.

The Challenge at Challenge

Riders came back to the cabin in 2018. Roland Cheek founded the first Back Country Horsemen chapter in Montana in 1973. That year he visited Challenge Cabin with a group from the Flathead chapter who were clearing trails in the area. A couple from the Charlie Russell Chapter in Great Falls also showed up to see what it was like, and Cheek began to think about drawing members from more chapters together.

“Rick Maedje and I got to talking and we wondered, if there was one couple there from another chapter, if we were to promote an event centered around Challenge Cabin, how many others from additional chapters would want to attend,” Cheek told the Hungry Horse News in April 2019.

The result was a four-day August gathering billed as the first-ever “Challenge at Challenge Cabin.” The paper called the cabin “a historically important backcountry cabin in Montana.” The Back Country Horsemen of the Flathead sent invitations to the other 17 chapters in Montana and to one in British Columbia. Special guests were also invited, among them Congressman Greg Gianforte, Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines, Governor Steve Bullock, Regional Forest Director Leanne Marten, and Hungry Horse District Ranger Rob Davies. The article does not say who came.

The chapter planned some trail clearing during the gathering. The main program was fellowship, trail rides with maps and written descriptions of each route, and an exchange of ideas among chapters. Organizers expected at least 100 people. Attendance was limited to Back Country Horsemen members because camping space in the area is limited. The Flathead chapter would cook breakfast and dinner on Friday and Saturday, August 23 and 24.

“Collectively, chapters across the state all have splendid ideas that propel their individual groups to exciting prominence in their own areas,” said Maedje, a Flathead chapter member and leader of the gathering.

Cheek was less certain of the outcome. “We have no idea what the event is going to transpire into, but the idea behind it was to have an exchange of ideas between clubs and maybe it would be the next step forward for backcountry horsemen,” he said. “There is a state organization where reps from each chapter get together twice a year, but nothing like this has been tried before.”