• WHAT? Jewish Hike
• WHEN? August 18, 2024; 14 AV, 5784, 9:45 A.M.

We will hike on MT. Ascension in Helena’s South Hills trail system, starting at the DeFord trailhead on South Davis St. The hike is just over 3.5 miles with a little climbing at first, but then mostly a contour trail with some ups and downs, and then a nice downhill section. A link to the South Hills Trail map might be helpful HERE

You will want to zoom in a lot and then use the left and bottom scrolling bars, but you can then see the DeFord trailhead and the trails we will follow.)

We will hike up the Eagle Scout trail and then go South on the Archery Range trail, hook up to the Entertainment Trail, which will take us back to Davis St. where we will take the DeFord trail (runs parallel to Davis) back to the parking lot.

There is not a really good spot on this route for Torah study, but Martha and I thought we could gather at MJP after the hike for Torah study and bagels. MJP has a new lending library and also a small and growing collection of Judaica and artifacts.

Directions:
Coming into town off I-15
Take the Capitol exit
– If coming from the north/Great Falls – turn right (west) onto Prospect Ave. going into town
– If coming from the south – I am not sure if you turn left or right here – the main point is to head west into town, rather than towards Townsend
Once going west on Prospect, you will want to get in one of the two left lanes
Turn left off Prospect onto Montana Avenue (going South) – you will go uphill and see the Capitol building on your left
Turn right onto Broadway Ave. – just past the Capitol building
Follow Broadway for about a mile(?) – about nine blocks – when you come to the S. Beattie cross street, you will know you are getting close (Beattie, Hillsdale, Davis)
Turn left onto Davis St. – you will drive about a half mile up Davis, when the road turns to dirt, you will know you are close
Soon after the road turns to dirt, you will see two parking areas on your left – the second one is the parking area at the DeFord trailhead. If you would like to park at the first lot and just walk up to the trailhead, that will work too, but the second one is the one that is at the trailhead.

Good news – I just typed “DeFord Trailhead” into Google maps and it is there and can be set as a destination – SO, that may be the easiest method for finding your directions, as giving directions has never been one of my best skill sets.

Hope to see you there!
Claudia

It looks like it is a 1 hour 28 minute drive from Great Falls, but with the construction on I-15 I think we should allow 1 hour 45 minutes, so meet at the Smiths parking lot near the gas station at 8 AM sharp? Then we can carpool.

Thank you Claudia from Helena for taking the time to organize this!
Wendy