15, 18 - The Pioneer Cabin

7/21/12 - With Hollie Hatch

The Pioneer Cabin is one of the quintessential hikes of the valley.  You can't walk twenty paces around here without seeing the words, "The higher you get, the higher you get." It's an icon.  There are four routes to the cabin.  We took the Pio cabin trail up, mostly to say that we had, and the north fork of Hyndman creek down to East Fork where we'd stashed a second car.  It was an excellent decision, and if I was going to hike up to Pio Cabin again I'd probably date the N. Fork both directions.  It was steep, but breathtakingly beautiful.  And with that, here is the story of our hike.

The hike basically starts with switchbacks.  The trail guide says 7, then a flatter section, then 4 more before the meadow.  Clearly they count switchbacks differently than we do, because we counted 24.  I suppose you could count each loop as one rather than each time you turn, but I feel like we as readers really need to be prepared for this.  We got to seven and we thought "Yay, we made it!!" and they just kept coming, over and over.  This was really put into perspective for us, though, when three trail runners overtook us on the switchbacks.  We are not nearly as BA as we were starting to think we were.

We made a new friend along the way...

I'm just going to throw up some more photos until we get up to the cabin.  It's good times.  You'll see the junction to Johnstone Creek in there...

(Just to let all of you know, this point is where the woman carrying an infant on her back passed us.  She turned out to be the wife of one of the people who ran passed us earlier.  He'd doubled back to hit the summit a second time with her...)

Based on my descriptions of all of the people who passed us, you'd probably assume we were moving fairly slow, but we were hauling.  We did the whole 8 miles in less than 4 hours.  People in Sun Valley are just an insane level of fit.  Anyway, we climbed a couple more switchbacks and we made it to the cabin!!

 

 

  

 

Ok, so the cabin is kinda cool.  Then we started the Oh-so-steep decent down the North Fork...

I posted a lot of pictures in this one.  Also, I didn't manage to get them to lay out properly, so they are kind of a cluster.  That's okay, because it is my bedtime.  The moral of my story is that everyone should hike to Pio Cabin up the Pio Cabin Trail at least once, but the North Fork is way cooler, so check it out.  Additionally, trail runners are amazing.

We are in the Magic Valley Times!!

Hollie, Paula and I ran into a couple out hiking on the Hyndman Basin trail (16) that were possibly going to write an article about the hike and the people they met along the way.  As it turns out, they did!  Check it out!

The Trail for Any Hiker

Thanks a bunch to  Virginia Hutchins for this excellent article!
Image and article property of VIRGINIA HUTCHINS/TIMES-NEWS. To purchase a print and/or read the awesome blurb, click the photo to hyperlink!

32 - Gladiator Creek!

7/19/12 - With Sarah Hayden and Lilly Frey

It is official.  We are gladiators.  We gave ourselves gladiator names and we conquered the mountain, all before breakfast.  Well... before second breakfast.  Who climbs mountains without having breakfast?

Our opponent was a tricky foe.  Seriously, this is a total fake-out hike.  First, it starts out at a fairly moderate grade, which lulls you into a false sense of complacency.  You can even go touring off to some old mining cabins. 

Back on the main path the trail suddenly begins to shoot upward, but you see the top of the ridge fairly soon, so you think, 'hey, no biggie, I can hack this.'  You make it to the top and, alas, it was a sneak attack!  You come into a really beautiful meadow, but across the meadow is the trail, continuing on its way up the mountain.

So you catch your breath as you cross the meadow and begin to climb straight up in the air once again.  You see open air smiling at you from above the ridge.  This time you are positive you are almost to the top.  You come to the top and... another small basin.  This one has a lovely stream, but it is still not exactly what you were hoping for. 

The trail continues, constantly giving you false hope until, at last, you come to probably one of the coolest saddles. 

It is really narrow, so you can see down both sides at the same time.  There are some excellent rock outcroppings.  Look for the cairn to your right and head down that way for the best viewpoint. 

Breath in the fresh mountain air, then prepare yourself for a long downhill back, because all that steep trail you just came up is a careful mess to pick your way back down.  Hiking poles were a huge help on this one, both on the ascent and the decent.  The trail does continue into the valley on the other side, but breakfast (which was actually lunch by the time we got down) was back at Galena.  Just remember, if you make it down before 4, Galena Lodge has some of the best food in the valley.  Definitely stop in for a snack before heading home. :D

Notes on the trail head: The dirt road from Galena Lodge to the trail head doesn't look bad at the begining, but it is seriously not for coups. My Escape took it like a champ though! If you've got more than a few hours before work, you can always hike/bike the 1.6 miles to the trail.  The trail starts in both directions from there, but there is a map out by the trail head. You'll want to hang a right.