Bald Mountain, Ketchum, Idaho -- September 23, 2008

When the Hip Hiker household decides to seek out peace and quiet away from home, the road usually takes us to a little town in Idaho called Ketchum.... also known the as town right next to Sun Valley. It's a winter playground for most, but Dave and I have only ever been there in the summer. It's our favorite summer getaway.

And the hiking is amazing.

For years we've been wanting to tackle Bald Mountain -- known affectionately as Baldy -- the ski hill that looms over the Ketchum/Sun Valley area. Every year we've turned back. No matter how you approach it, hiking up a ski hill is a formidable task.

This was going to be the year. No matter what.

We approached Baldy from the Warm Springs side. This was excellent strategy, since our condo was only a few blocks away and close enough to limp home to once the hike was over.

From the bottom of the ski hill.... the Warm Spring lodge.. beautiful building:



Looking down at Warm Springs from about 15 minutes up the hill. Those are the snow making guns along the trail. We took a service road up the hill because we thought it would be easier. As you can see, it wasn't.



The upside to climbing straight up a mountain is how quickly you gain height. Looking north east, and down at the maintenance shed about 45 minutes into the hike.



The "more difficult" made me laugh.



Peeking through the trees at Sun Valley Road, north of Sun Valley.



I'm used to the Rockies, but this is pretty amazing to me....



A look at the town of Ketchum, with Sun Valley in the background.



Another look at Ketchum and Sun Valley



Looking east, including Hyndman Peak



Same angle... I just love the softness of the sage covered mountains in the foreground:





In 2007, the area was struck by the Castle Rock fire. The area of Warm Springs was evacuated as the flames reached Baldy and threatened many homes. The trail took us past some of the fire damage on the northwest side





Looking west at more velvety hills.. can't get enough... some of the fire damage can be seen right in front:



Looking northwest.... up high now..



Wow.



We made it to the top! And Dave was really happy about it.



Ski lifts at the top. The sign says elevation 9010 feet.



Ketchum/Sun Valley again:



Another look at the burned area:





More to come from Ketchum....

Coalmine -- September 14, 2008

After the muscle strain that was Centennial Ridge, there was no way I was going on anything more than a gentle stroll this weekend. However, I did find myself drawn back to the same area.

I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of a coal mining history geek. I've had my eye on a trail in the Kananaskis area that leads to a reclaimed mining site, and it just happened to be a turn-off from the same trail as Centennial Ridge. Passing by it the week before just whetted my appetite, so David and I returned to the scene of last week's crime.

Plus I wanted David to see just how bad Centennial was.

How bad? Again, here's the hiking sign, this time with a "normal" hiking sign. The hiking guy that looks like he's stepping up an enormous hill is not exaggerating:



The history I have about this area is brief: Coal was discovered in the early 1900s, but lack of access roads made mining the area less than viable. By the late 40s, an access road had been built and strip mining began in earnest. After a year the operation went underground due a particularly thick seam in the mountain. The mine was in operation for 5 years before freight costs got too high and the demand for coal briquettes lessened.

This trail isn't particularly well marked, but I could tell we were getting close:



When the trail starting to go from dirt under our feet to this, we knew we had to be in the area:



Even the hills around us showed the sign of the "other" black gold:



However, once at the end of this brief hike, there's really nothing left to see, which is great on the reclamation side.... not so interesting on the history side:



I did notice some coal cars sitting near the trailhead for Ribbon Creek (on the other side of the parking lot), so there's still more to discover about this area....

Centennial Ridge -- September 7, 2008

Centennial Ridge: South approach. Take Highway 40 south to Ribbon Day Use Parking Area. Begin at the Hidden Trail trailhead. Turn left onto Centennial Ridge Trail about 0.2 km in.

I still can't think about this hike without getting chills. Maybe it was the strange weather conditions where we literally saw four seasons in one day. Maybe it was the fact it took us over 5 hours to go 4.5 km. Perhaps it was simply the magnitude of the hike that we didn't fully appreciate until we were back at the trailhead, but this was a banner hike.

Some background: Centennial Ridge was built in 1967 to celebrate Canada's Centennial year (seems fairly logical). At 2819m/9249ft, it is the highest maintained trail in the Canadian Rockies.

And it feels like it. The full ridge walk is approximately 17 km, but most choose to approach it from the south side and return the same way (13.8 km return). The north approach is longer and steeper, but more shaded (21 km return).

It is not for the first time hiker. I'm not even sure it's for the intermediate hiker, but it's certainly a feeling of accomplishment no matter how far you get. A little bit of scrambling is required.

As we started out, the day was perfect. A sunny fall morning, with just the hint of cloud cover. Mount Kidd looked especially inviting from the trailhead:



This sign should have been our first warning. Do the icons on these signs usually look like they're marching as opposed to hiking?



As we climbed, the cloud cover looked amazing. I believe this is Ribbon Peak:



Looking across the valley:



As we got higher, the peaks poking through the cloud cover got increasingly inspiring:





One of the most taxing things about the Centennial hike is the false summits. You think you're getting to the top, but instead it's just another step along the way. It's not even a plateau... it just keeps climbing. This is a spot where we thought we'd catch a break, but were proven wrong. At this point, we were also starting to get awfully close to those clouds...



It was so green and surprisingly humid for above or near the treeline. It was also a long way down:



Then suddenly, we were hiking right into the clouds:



To the south of us the view started to open up, though Bogart Tower is blocked by the clouds:



Hiking into the mist!



The mist would come and go, but it moved quickly! We would go from clear skies to surrounded by fog in a matter of seconds. Here's another wall of fog moving in on us:




As we hit a bit of a plateau, we were free of the mist, but found a new novelty...(at least then) snow!







(For some reason this was interesting to us in September. I'm not sure why. After a long winter, my only fascination is why I was so fascinated by it).

The terrain was definitely changing. Instead of nothing but green grass and hills, now we were seeing green grass and rocks.



Stunning:



To the south:



Olympic Summit! This is the first "real" summit of the hike, though it's far from the highest. From here the trail is briefly a gentle ridge walk with a slight incline toward the more rocky and snow-covered true summit -- Mt. Allan. Just below this summit on the other side is the ski hill Nakiska, where some of the skiing events for the 1988 Winter Olympics were held.



Weather station! I actually get my weather reports for the Kananaskis area from this very weather station (how geeky am I to know that?):



I'll be honest, I don't even remember which direction this shot was in. We were both a little fried at this point.



The ridgewalk got a lot more snowy as we approached the approach to the summit.





The view all around us:







It was past 2:30 and we'd been hiking since 9. We were tired, sore, losing the daylight, and being snowed on after having to pack sunscreen earlier in the day. As much as we wanted to make that summit, we knew it would easily take another hour, and then our tired legs would need another 4 hours to navigate back down. It was a tough call, but we turned around.



It just gives us one more reason to go back...