Back in Idaho!!!!! I arrived last week but needed to take care of a few items before summer playtime could commence. The weather turned to crap as it many times does this time of year so waking up to this glorious day was a real treat. It had been Tommy’s birthday a couple weeks ago and we needed to celebrate with a peak! Early in the summer, it is tough to find accessible mountains as all the roads are still snowed in. Jughandle Mountain is a fine early season choice and is visible from most parts of the valley. I last climbed Jughandle Mountain in May of 2019, check out that report here.
Showing our age, we have adopted a new form of adventure. The e-mountain bike! Tommy has recently retried and is in retirement training. Typically it is important to not “over-recreate” retirement trainees so we chose e-bikes from Tom’s house to ease him into the summer season. A couple adventures in the Boulder Creek drainage early on will allow us to expand his adventure horizons later in the summer.
As we climb the fire roads to the base of Jughandle Mountain, a peek through the trees reveals a wonderful view of the Walla Mountains in Oregon. I love the red barn on Farm to Market Road! The first image in this blog was shot from Farm to Market Road very near that red barn.
At about 6500 feet of elevation, the e-bike portion of the adventure was over and the climb officially starts. Our decision to leave the snowshoes at home looks to be not smart!
After a small bit, we were at Louie Lake and had a great view of our objective for the day. Our plan, skirt around the right hand side of the lake and ease up the ridge-line to the summit.
The going started to get pretty hard as we were post-holing up the side of the mountain. Craig takes a monument to soak in the views and glorious nature of the day.
We put Tommy in the front and he kicked in steps for the non-mountain goats. In front of Tom, our peak nears.
At the top, incredible views of the green valley below first looking north then looking south.
Looking to the east and deep into the Idaho Mountains, a “shit ton” of snow! “Shit Ton is an official unit of measurement which is obviously more than a “Butt Load”! Its going to be a little while before we venture too far into these mountains.
As we departed the summit, I loved the light on this old snag.
Back down we go trying to avoid the hidden holes between the rocks.
Back down at Louis Lake, notice the change in the weather? As it turns out, June 1st is Craig’s birthday so we managed to celebrate two birthdays for the price of one!
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