Trip Report
Middle Mountain is located south of Oakley, Idaho. The peak is on a north-south trending ridge and located between the Goose Creek Mountains on one side and the Albion Range on the other. Technically, it is part of the Goose Creek range, but in reality the peak is almost it's own range. On the topographic map, the label "Middle Mountain" is attached to the ridge that stretches almost 15 miles from Oakley to the Utah border.
Middle Mountain checks in with nearly 1500' of prominence, so as you can guess, it offers some spectacular views. In addition to views, sometimes prominent peaks have more wind... more on that to come.
Middle Mountain is somewhat famous for being the primary location of Oakley Stone mining operations. Oakley Stone is a quartzite used in building construction. There are at least 4 quarries on the west side of the peak that harvest Oakley Stone.
I left Twin Falls at 6am, arriving at the "trail head" on the west slopes of Middle Mountain at 7:20am. It was cool (mid-30's), somewhat cloudy, and the ground and roads were wet from storms the previous few day.
Based on land use data from ListsOfJohn, it appeared that an approach from the southernmost quarry, almost directly below Middle Mountain, would allow me to legally access the peak.
I set off from the road, avoiding the "No Trespassing" signs near the entrance to the quarry and then cut south to what is supposed to be public lands. Unfortunately, a fence blocks access. During this time the wind came up, but the sun also came out.
Eventually I got across the fence and made my way up the west face. At around 7,000 feet I started following an old road which led me through a patch of junipers and eventually to a saddle that connected to the main ridge line of Middle Mountain. At the saddle at 7400', I fueled up and put some warm clothes on, as the already moderate winds were sure to be blowing harder higher up.
At around 8000', I started encountering snow. nothing too bad, just ankle deep. I pushed on and my route joined the summit ridge at 8200'. Here the wind was ripping and the snow was knee deep. With only 250' to go, I simply battened down the hatches and pushed on. It wasn't until being on the last 50 feet of ridge that the wind really started affecting me, knocking me to my knees on a few occasions and making breathing tough. But soon I was on the highest point. I found some wire, wood, and a few cairns. With the howling winds and cold, no exploration for summit registers occurred and I just snapped a few photos and ran back down the hill.
The descent went smoothly. I tried a different route to my vehicle. As I walked the road, an employee with the mine doing road maintenance stopped to chat. About 100 feet later, I passed a "Private Area, No Trespassing" sign. Oops... glad he didn't freak out, but also surprised the sign was there as the maps show it to be public land (maybe they aren't up-to-date?).
This would be a great trip if not for the access issues and the eyesore of the quarries. The peak is very similar to Black Pine Peak to the east.
I think routes further south may be the way to better access the peak, but I didn't research that area, so I don't know if they would be feasible or not.
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