Steep hike to Cervidae Peak close to snow-free; first Grand Slam peak to melt out

Got the first Grand Slam peak notched for 2021!

Hi all, 

Over the last few weeks, with cool, dry and breezy spring weather, the trails are beginning to dry out, especially in the lower Boise foothills and Owyhee front country. I blogged about Ridge to Rivers green-lighting some lower Boise foothills trails last week. 

This week, I thought I'd check on the snow level on Cervidae Peak, typically the first of the Boise Grand Slam peaks to melt out. The summit of Cervidae is 5,009 feet, and today, the peak was mostly snow-free, with patches of snow on top. The trail itself was dry as a bone, with a few long patches of snow covering the trail on the ridgelines within a mile of the top.

Airplane ridge with great views in all directions.

It's always an ass-kicker of a hike since it goes straight up a ridgeline for 2,000 vertical feet over 2.2 miles. Over 500 feet of climbing per mile = STEEP! But that also means it'll provide a great workout, and get your hiking legs warmed up for the season. No pain, no gain!

How to get there: The trailhead is on a road-side dirt pull-out (right-side) past Spring Shores Marina on the road to Lucky Peak and Arrowrock. A two-track road opposite of the parking area is your trail. The hike today took me a little over an hour to the top, and slightly longer on the way down. Maybe my time was a little slower because I was stopping to marvel at the beauty and take pics. 

Lucky Peak was absolutely still and smooth as a glass pane lake-wide today. The deep blue-green color of the water contrasts with blah-looking brown landscape that has yet to green-up.  

Lucky Peak on a calm spring day ... L.P. Nursery is off to the right on the flat.

Viewing the other Grand Slam peaks from the top of Cervidae, it appears the other three are snow-bound for now. Kepros will open up next, then Shaw Mountain, then Heinen. That's the order I would recommend for knocking out those hikes this spring. All of them are delightful through May, until it starts to get hot. Wildflowers on Kepros last year were PHENOMENAL! Let's hope we see that again! 

Arrowleaf Balsomroot going off on Kepros last May. With Quinn Stuebner. 

For background on the Boise Grand Slam peaks, you can check on out my previous blogs on the other individual Grand Slam peaks - Kepros, Heinen and Shaw Mountain/Lucky Peak. You can climb Lucky Peak via the BLM road accessed from Highland Valley Road, via Rocky Canyon Road or Homestead Trail above Harris Ranch. 

The Grand Slam peaks also are featured in my Boise Trail Guide: 95 Hiking & Running Routes Close to Home.  

Tom Lopez, a retired attorney who lives in Boise, was the person who pioneered the Boise Grand Slam peaks as a way to tune-up the legs for a summer of hiking in the Sawtooths and other mountain ranches that are snow-bound right now. Tom's book, Idaho: A Climbing Guide, is the best source of information for climbing Idaho mountain summits statewide. I highly recommend it. 

Mt. Heinen is the hulk of a mountain off in the distance. Still quite a bit of snow. 

The weather in SW Idaho is supposed to be crummy on Friday, but it looks good on Saturday and Sunday with mostly clear skies and high temperatures in the mid-50s. Perfect weather for spring hiking! 

Be sure to keep an eye on the Ridge to Rivers Facebook page for updates on trail conditions. 

Also, if you take your dog to Cervidae, be sure to carry a leash in case there are any mule deer or elk in the area. The trail lies inside the Boise River Wildlife Management Area. Thank you.
- SS

Climbing Mount Heinen, the toughest of the Boise Grand Slam Peaks, is a rewarding trip

Looking back at Mt. Heinen on the north side ... very steep approach from this side. 

Jack, Joanie and Steve on top of Mt. Heinen 

Celebrating the completion of Steve's Grand Slam on top of Mt. Heinen with Jack, Joanie and Judy 

Hi all,

I've been pecking away at the two remaining Boise Grand Slam peaks this spring to complete my Grand Slam, and by climbing Mt. Heinen with three friends on Saturday, I did it! 

At 6,390 feet, Mt. Heinen is the tallest of the Grand Slam peaks, and definitely one of the most strenuous hikes. But we hiked it on a gorgeous sunny day last Saturday, with temps in the mid-60s, and it felt wonderful to be out hiking in wildflowers, green grass and relatively warm weather! 

Just for background, the Boise Grand Slam was created by Tom Lopez, a retired lawyer and the author of Idaho: A Climbing Guide. The concept is to give Treasure Valley residents an early goal of hiking the Grand Slam peaks to begin getting in shape for the summer backpacking and mountain climbing season. 

Joanie with her pup in the snow field on the north side of Heinen. Hiking poles were very handy on this trip. 

The other three peaks are Mt. Cervidae (closest to Boise and shortest, but still hard -- 2 miles straight up, 2,000 feet of climbing), Mt. Kepros (10 miles and over 2,000 vertical feet), and Lucky Peak/Shaw Mountain, the top of the eastern flank of the Boise Foothills.   

There are multiple approaches to Mt. Heinen. We drove up to the Cottonwood Creek Trailhead in the Boise National Forest, about 1.5 hours from town, next to Arrowrock Reservoir. We hiked one steep ridge up to the main ridgetop leading to Heinen Peak, and hiked another steep ridgeline back to the trailhead. It was a great adventure tour with no real trail most of the way, but pretty easy route-finding staying on the ridges. 

My friends Joanie Faucie, Jack Van Valkenburg and Jody Thorne went with me. We made for a good group, all hiking at about the same pace. We brought lots of water, a lunch, wind breaker, hiking poles and GPS for the trip. It took us about 4.5 hours to do the whole hike. Mileage was 7+ miles. Vertical gain over 3,300 feet. It'd rate the trip strenuous. 

Our route took us up a ridge above Garden Gulch, through the forest and then on a main ridge heading for Mt. Heinen.

From Cottonwood Creek Trailhead, we went back down the road toward Arrowrock Reservoir for a short bit, crossed the creek and climbed up a ridge above Garden Gulch. Be sure to respect the private property in the vicinity by the creek bottom. Once on the ridge, we climbed steadily through grass sagebrush terrain and wildflowers until we reached the timber zone, and then we had to navigate a little brush to reach the top ridgeline. Once on that ridge, we ran into a couple that was hiking to Heinen from the South Ridge, or Irish Creek Campground by the reservoir. This route is 4.5 miles one-way, with 3,880 feet of gain. Our route was more direct, but perhaps more punishing. 

It was super pleasant on the ridge, and an easy walk up to Heinen. We had almost no wind up top, so we could hang out and eat our lunch. There are two rocky peaks on Heinen that seem to be the same elevation, but the peak furtheast west is the one with the USGS marker on top, and a water bottle containing some note paper for hiker notes. I signed my name. 

The descent off the north side of Heinen was super-steep! There was a snow field that we slid down on our boots laterally, and then we hiked down the face of the mountain over the ridge we planned to descend. It was a delightful walk downhill along the backbone of a steep ridge, with major elk habitat in the dense timber, and open brush, or bird and deer habitat on the sunny side of the ridge. Huck flushed three big blue grouse on the way down, and at least two on the way up. 

Matt Clark of the Idaho Trails Association says he calls climbing Heinen, a Heineken-type of hike because you earn your beer -- and your dinner -- on that one! I sure was glad to have a hot tub to jump into when I got home, with a PBR in hand. 

See more pics on my Facebook page. 

Have fun! 

- SS 

Mount Kepros is a delightful, 10-mile hike - part of the Boise Grand Slam!

Summit of Mt. Kepros, elevation 5,428 feet ... Big views for 360 degrees! 

View from Kepros looking back at the two-track road going back toward Peak 5380.
Three Point Mountain is the next ridge to the east.  

T

The trail is steep in places ... and steep coming back! I used hiking poles to take some of the stress off my knees. 

Hi all,

I had a nice window of time last Saturday afternoon for a long hike. It'd been a pretty rainy week, so I hadn't gotten out much, and my pointer Huck was totally chomping at the bit to get outside and do some serious miles. And I was too!

I had been thinking about the Boise Grand Slam -- a concept created by Tom Lopez, author of Idaho - A Climbing Guide -- and trying to knock off either Mt. Kepros or Mt. Heinen. I emailed Tom to see what he recommended, and he wrote back, saying he was half way out the ridge on the way to Kepros, and the trail was great! Ha! What a coincidence!

Great to run into Tom Lopez on the trail! 

Tackling the Grand Slam peaks in the spring presents an opportunity to jump-start getting your body in shape for the summer hiking and backpacking season. Mt. Cervidae, near Spring Shores Marina at Lucky Peak, usually dries out first, so that can be the first one on your list. Lopez recommends Kepros as the next trip. Shaw Mountain or Lucky Peak are No. 3. And Mt. Heinen is the last, and often the last to be snow-free. All of them are strenuous hikes, but that's the whole point, right?

I put together a quick lunch, some Clif bars, and packed up my Osprey hiking pack for the 10-mile hike. I looked up a topo map of Mt. Kepros on Caltopo and printed it out for navigation. I zipped out to Black's Creek Road on I-84, a few miles east of Boise, and drove about 10 minutes to the first summit on the way to Prairie. That's the trailhead for Kepros (elevation 4,800 feet).

On the west side of the road, there's an old motorcycle trail that marches straight up the mountain. That's your trail. The route climbs 400 vertical feet to an initial saddle next to Three Point Mountain (optional side trip). And then the singletrack vectors off to the northwest, following a series of Camel's back ridgetops over to Peak 5380.

There are some cool granite outcroppings along the way

I ran into Tom Lopez in this section. He mentioned that there are a number of bypass trails along the route, short-cutting the main trail that goes over a bump on the ridge and then dives down the other side, losing most of the elevation. The bypass trails are marked by rock cairns in some cases. But they do save you energy. Great to know!

It took me about an hour to reach Peak 5380 -- actually I took the bypass trail to the right to avoid hitting the summit -- and Mt. Kepros looked like a LONG ways away, even though it was only 2.5 miles away. Worse, the road I would be following now to the north actually was going downhill, losing elevation, and then I could see I would have to make up that elevation again to summit Kepros. Watch for bypass trails.

It took me about another hour to summit Kepros (elev. 5,428). Huck flushed several small groups of chukars and one big blue grouse along the way. That's always a rush to hear a big blue take off right next to you, scaring the holy hell out of you.

The ridge walk to Kepros is really delightful. You can see Bogus Basin and Boise off to the west, the Boise National Forest to the north, the sparkling waters of Lucky Peak Reservoir down below, and the Trinities, all smothered in snow, off to the east. On a sunny afternoon, without much wind, it's just beautiful out there. A friend told me that the wildflowers on the ridge can be spectacular in May.  

Please see Tom's Grand Slam post or my Grand Slam post for more details about the other mountains. I have the hike to Mt. Cervidae detailed in my Boise Trail Guide: 90 Hiking and Running Routes Close to Home.  That one is much more of a quick trip, than Kepros.

It took me about 4 hours to do the hike out and back at a brisk pace. The hike features at least 1,700 feet of elevation gain. My GPS malfunctioned, so I don't have the exact numbers. There are many spots where you could stop for lunch. I decided to pull over in a grassy spot where the pines trees came up to the ridge road, about a half-mile below Kepros.

It's always cool to learn about a new hike in your backyard. I highly recommend Mt. Kepros and the Boise Grand Slam!
- SS