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Grand Slam #2: Mt. Heinen

The Boise Grand Slam Peaks are four well known mountains near Boise: Cervidae Peak, Mount Heinen, Kepros Mountain and Lucky Peak/Shaw Mountain. They are snow free in the spring so they are used as training climbs for hikers wanting to get in condition for the summer season in the high mountains. Doing all four of them is a thing for mountain enthusiasts in Boise. I had done two of them over the years, Cervidae Peak and Shaw Mountain, but had never tried to do all of them as a set. This year I decided that I wanted to do them. I felt that I was fully recovered from the knee replacement surgery that I had the year before and I had grand plans to do lots of hiking this year. I had already done several hiking trips to canyon country early in the year. Now was my time to do all of the Grand Slam Peaks. I had started when Sandy and I climbed Cervidae Peak. A few days later I decided to take the next step and tackle Mount Heinen.

It seemed that Mount Heinen might be the hardest of the Grand Slam Peaks. According to AllTrails.com, it was a long hike, almost ten miles round trip, but not the longest. It did have the most elevation gain though, over 3700 feet. It's not that the route starts really low. It's that it follows ridges with lots of ups and downs, climbing up and over high points just to descend before having to climb again. Giving up hard won elevation gain only to have to climb up again is the most discouraging hiking there is. I figured that if I wanted to do all of the Grand Slam Peaks, I should attempt Heinen next.

To get to Mt. Heinen, I drove to Cervidae Peak. From there, I continued another 12 miles along the road that followed the shore of Lucky Peak Reservoir, past Arrowrock Dam, and then beside Arrowrock Reservoir. It took another 45 minutes for the extra distance. It was a rough dirt road but hey, that's why I have a Suburu Forester. My Subie could handle it.

I found the parking area for the start of the route up Mt. Heinen. It's actually marked on Google Maps, so it was easy. Compared to Cervidae, where there were a lot of cars, this time I was the only car parked there. I crossed the road and started up the mountain.

Like Cervidae Peak, this was not a maintained trail. It was a use track, worn by hikers, mountain bikes, ATV's and 4WD trucks. Most of the time it just went straight up. It was steep, sometimes very steep. I just took it slowly, but I knew that it was going to be loose and treacherous on the way down.

The wildflowers were in full bloom. There were many different kinds but as always in the hills near Boise, it was dominated by arrowleaf balsamroot. Entire slopes on the mountain had turned yellow, covered in the flowers. Whenever I was out of breath from the steep climb, I would just stop and admire the flowers for a while till I caught my breath.

Eventually I climbed out of the canyon that the reservoir was in. Now instead of going straight up, the route followed a long ridgeline. But it was not a steadily climbing ridge, or as a mathematician would say, it was not monotonically increasing. It was up and down, up and down, over many intermediate high spots. I could see the peak off in the distance, but it seened to get closer very, very slowly. Still, it was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky and I had the mountains all to myself. I didn't see another hiker.

At one point I passed a large tent. This was not a recreational campsite. It must have been for people watching over animals, sheep or maybe cattle, that were grazing in these hills. It was definitely industrial strength based on the amount and type of equipment that they had. But no one was there. Apparently whoever was staying there was off doing whatever they were there to do.

After climbing a particularly steep slope I finally seemed to be getting close to the summit. I just had to follow a last ridgeline that climbed gradually to the top of the mountain. After hiking for many hours I was getting excited to finally get there and started to hurry. That was a mistake. Taking a quick step without watching carefully, my foot caught on a plant root that was sticking out over the trail. When I tried to catch myself, my other foot caught on the same root. I tripped and went flying. I couldn't help myself. I yelled in surprise as I fell forward.

I quickly figured out that I wasn't hurt, which was good considering how far I was from the road. My next thought was that since I hadn't seen anyone else on the trail all day, at least I didn't have to worry that I had looked and sounded like a total dork. But as I was spitting out the mouthful of dirt that I acquired when I did my faceplant, I heard a concerned voice behind me asking "are you ok?" I turned around and there was another hiker coming up the trail about a hundred feet behind me.

Great. Just great. So much for not feeling embarassed. I dusted myself off and assured him that I was ok.

We continued up the final slope and reached the summit together. I think he may have been keeping an eye on me to make sure that I didn't hurt myself - trip over my own feet or fall off the mountain or something. We chatted while we were on the summit. He was visiting Idaho from the midwest and was also doing the Grand Slam Peaks. He had just done Kepros Mountain the day before and said that he thought it was a lot easier than Heinen. I was glad to hear that since it was next on my list. With another person there, I actually got a real picture of me on the summit instead of just the usual selfie. That was a bonus. We both started down at the same time but he was a lot younger and a lot faster than me so it wasn't long before he was far ahead and out of sight. I had the mountain all to myself again.

Usually the way down is a lot easier and a lot faster than the climb up to the summit. Not in this case. There were a lot of intermediate high points that the route had climbed up and over. That meant that I had to go up, over and down them again on the return. That wasn't fun. On the way back I was tired and not excited about doing a lot more elevation gain. And just like Cervidae Peak, there were steep downhill slopes with loose dirt and scree that were very treacherous. It took a lot of extra effort, and time, to descend them carefully. With all the ups and downs it took almost as long to get back to the trailhead as it took to climb to the summit. I was definitely tired by the time I reached the car.

According to the AllTrails app and the GPS on my phone, the hike was 9.77 miles with 3740 feet of elevation gain. It took me a little under seven hours. It was a beautiful day and the views during the hike were great. The wildflowers were awesome. They were everywhere along the trail. And the peakbagger in me is always excited to reach a summit.

On the other hand, I will admit that the constant up and down was discouraging, especially on the return. And just like Cervidae Peak, the slopes with steep, loose dirt were no fun. Bottom line - I was glad I did the hike and I enjoyed the day, but I probably wouldn't put Mount Heinen on my list of favorite hikes to repeat.