Hike Hyndman Peak Sawtooth National Forest, ID

Aug 24, 2022 — Hyndman Peak is the highest point of the Pioneer Mountains, and it has a trail leading almost the whole way to the summit. I woke up to find Rebecca's car at the trailhead (we met the previous day on Borah), happy to find that our half-assed meet-up plan would work out. We merrily set out along the Hyndman Creek Trail, both happy to have a hiking companion for separate reasons: she saw cat eyes in the middle of the night which understandably spooked her, and I was starting to get weary from being alone for so long on this trip. We laughed at ourselves for missing a very obvious log-crossing over the creek just after starting the hike, always a good sign when meeting someone new. Rebecca and I quickly became friends, and I loved her open-minded spirit and confidence, plus her cute dog Tefen who could run circles around us both.

The trail slowly gained elevation as it worked up the drainage, the pretty meadows illuminated by morning light. Then we started gaining more quickly as the trail ascended north into the basin at the southern base of Hyndman Peak. We passed a couple of easy creek crossings and a interesting cascade that paralleled the trail. Finally, we could see the summit pop up, still quite a bit away. The basin was gorgeous, the jagged western ridge of Hyndman Peak looming over a wide meadow.

With a bit more ascending we made it to an unnamed lake at the base of the peak. We could see the low point on Hyndman Peak's southeastern ridge, the spot where we'd be heading. The trail became less clear past the lake, but there were plenty of cairns and enough impact to form a social trail most of the time, and we had no trouble navigating the talus and keeping the going light. A couple of short Class 2 sections got us up to the ridgeline where the trail definitely ended.

Keeping prettty much directly along the ridge crest, we scrambled on Class 2 talus for a bit over a half mile to reach the summit. There was one section about halfway up that required keeping left of the crest since a large outcropping prevented direct access. I recommend keeping high when possible. Rebecca stayed low and later admitted she could begrudgingly accept that keeping higher is easier. The views were spectacular the whole way up, especially along the crest and toward the impressive northeast face of Hyndman Peak. At the summit, we took in the views and chatted about all sorts of things and bonded about how normally neither of us ever spend this much time on the summit. We backtracked the way we came. I experimented a bit with a social trail that led away from the ridge, but it wasn't great. Excellent day out on a mostly trailed, big mountain.

Later, while walking around Ketchum looking for even one place serving dinner that was under a thousand dollars, I bumped into a bread-baker acquaintance on the sidewalk who casually whipped out a couple of delicious loaves from his car and gave them to me. I was extremely excited. How sweet, but a ridiculous scenario.