Trip Report
One of my goals this year is to climb un-named, but legitimate peaks in my home county (Ada County). Before we get any further, I have to admit that I stole this idea from Zach Vickery. Now that we are past that, this was a good weekend for staying close to home, as the weather was iffy and we had just traveled a bunch for the holidays.
So on Saturday, I drove about 5 miles from my house and climbed up Kodiak Peak (Peak 4375) near Highland Valley Summit and just off Idaho 21. I was actually quite impressed with this peak. Not only does it provide a nice workout, but it has a real mountain look to it from the highway. In addition, it sits atop a ridge between Highland Valley Summit and the Boise River, so it has really good views. Couple that with wildlife (deer and elk) and a blue sky, it was a nice day to be out! This peak took me around 1.5 hours. It is almost exactly a 2 mile (round trip), 1000 foot climb from Highway 21.
Continuing with the Ada County peak theme, I met Zach at 7am on Sunday to bag some peaks along Bogus Basin Road. Within a few minutes, we were struggling up steep slopes of Peak 3793. While not that impressive, Peak 3793 is steep and does have a beautiful front patio view to the entire Treasure Valley. Being on the summit before sunrise allowed us to snap some photos with the lights of the valley shining below us. This was a 1.2 mile trip with 400 feet of gain. It took us about 30 minutes total. On to Peak 4460 (aka Currant Peak).
Currant Peak surprised me a bit. I was expecting a lame peak that was within an hour of the road. I guess I misread the map. From our parking spot on Bogus Basin Road, we dropped into Daniels Creek. We then found a trail that led us to the base of Currant Peak. We then climbed a short, steep east slope to gain the summit ridge. The summit plateau was rocky, but offers great views of the Boise Front and Treasure Valley. We followed the plateau north to the highpoint, which sits at the northern end of the ridge. The highest point is a neat, rocky outcrop. This peak took us about 3 hours. It was a 5.5 mile hike with about 1300 feet of gain.
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