Holloman saddle is on what's called the miller divide, or the north end of the sapphire mountains. The sapphires extend south all the way to Chief Joseph pass and idaho and have lots of other roads and trails to explore.
To start the ride, head out to east Missoula, through Bonner, and out to Clinton. Cross the highway after stopping for a water refill at the store, turn left, and you will find yourself on Schwartz creek road. Here is where a gpx track becomes moderately important. There are many old roads and having a route to follow will ensure you don't get lost or take a wrong turn. Even if I generally know where I'm going, I like to have a track when I'm out in this area.
From Schwartz creek you take the first right fork and begin climbing a fairly narrow, rough dirt road. It's nice to have a 32mm or larger tire but it's been done on road bikes.
The first part of the climb goes up 1800ft in 5.5 miles and then it levels out a bit until the last mile. The total distance is about 10 miles with 2100 vertical feet from the bottom of Schwartz creek. It took our group a little over an hour to reach the top with moderate effort and one snack break (despite the participants it did not turn into a hill climb race).
At the top of Holloman saddle there is a 4-way junction. Going north you can get to upper deer creek and pattee canyon, and going soutn you may be able to make it to eight mile saddle which goes to Florence or back down to Clinton. Straight ahead will bring you down Miller creek.
While it is almost all downhill, the trip back to town is going to take over an hour and requires some pedaling, so plan on a minimum of 2-2.5 hours from the Clinton store back to the bottom of Miller creek and convenience stores. You don't want to be out of water at the top.
Here is a track from the bottom of schwartz over the pass to miller creek
And here is the full ride on strava
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