The weather for the weekend was looking good so I decided to climb Smiley Mountain, a peak I have long planned to visit. A little birdy told me that John Platt was also interested so we made plans and met at 4:15am to begin the drive. Other than a detour due to US-93 being closed between Richfield and Carey, we had an uneventful trip.
Since this has been a wet and cool Spring in Idaho, everything was unusally green and beautiful. The lakes were all full and the streams running high; together all of this made for a great drive. We got to the trailhead around 8:30am and were off around 8:45am. Iron Bog Creek was running high so we had to take off our shoes and wade across. Once past there, we ascended the ridge and partook in the best ridgewalk of my hiking career.
John recently attempted Denali and kept a brisk pace, which was very successful in keeping me pushing upwards. We made the summit in just over 3 hours, taking in the tremendous summit vistas. Unfortunately our time on top was cut short due to some questionable looking clouds building (which turned out to be harmless). But we were far above treeline and caution was definitely in order.
Our descent was also very enjoyable as we cruised down the ridge. On the way home, John pioneered a shortcut over Fish Creek Summit which saved an hour on our return trip. The only negative of the whole day was that I forgot my camera (only the second time I've done that). A trip report can be seen at John's web site:
Smiley Mountain Trip Report
Trip statistics: 8.25 miles, 4300', just over 6 hours
Who is John Platt?
ReplyDeleteStopped for a look at John's pictures.... the countryside is stunningly beautiful and you looked very very tiny way down there on the talus field.
ReplyDeleteJohn is a guy from Boise who I've went hiking with a few times. He's a great partner!
ReplyDeleteThe scenery is indeed stunning. This was my first time in this particular corner of Idaho and I was very impressed!