Three Peak McCall Weekend

An overnight hike in the Grass Mountains with three peaks and fun off trail route finding.

Date: August 25-26, 2018.

Objectives: In order of ascent - Hard Benchmark 8,216. Grass Mountains High Point 8,180. Grassy Twin Peak 8,156.

Partners: Deez, Landen and Ketchum.

Stats: 12 miles and 3,400ft gain. Strava track.

Links: Grass Mountains overview on Idaho: A Climbing Guide.

I did some digging around the McCall area looking for an easy overnight hike with some peaks.  We were to use this a training mission for taking Landen to the White Cloud Peaks soon.  A few good ideas had popped up, but I referred to Splattski who is pretty much an expert on this region.  He had suggested Grass Mountain Lakes and the surrounding peaks; an area that I hadn't yet researched.  His advice was taken and that's where we headed.

I was pleasantly surprised with how good the road access was as we drove past the Brundage Ski Area and toward the trail head.  We were on the trail about 1:30 and didn't see a soul after leaving the parking lot.  It was about 1.7 miles to the camp site we found on the north shore of the first, eastern most lake.  The hike in was not difficult.  Skies were on the hazy side with a hint of smoke in the air.  We were expecting cooler and breezy conditions overnight and into the next day and that raised my confidence that the air would clear.

Signs at the trail head.

On the trail.

Hazy skies on the hike in.

Grassy Twin Peak.

Grassy Twin above the lake. Photo taken from camp.

We found a suitable site and got set up.  It wan't long unit the dog was whining to play chase the stick so Landed obliged.  After a short convo we decided to go for Hard Benchmark, a quick bonus peak that we had already passed on the hike in.  Dog was in and out of the drink quicker than you could say "come on, lets go"!

Dog in the lake.

Hiking up Hard Benchmark.

USGS marker on the summit.

Summit pic.

Seven Devils Mountains.

Getting up Hard Benchmark wasn't too hard.  We went round trip in two hours and were back in camp with plenty of time to relax and save energy for the next day.

The next morning was cooler, overcast, breezy and smoke free.  Time to hike!

As we set out for the peaks and headed to the saddle, I realized I didn't pay attention to the fork in the trail before the lakes as we hiked in the day before.  The fork to the right is the one that will take you over the pass, towards Coffee Cup Lake.  We followed the left fork to the lakes, then to the head of the valley before I realized that I'd missed something.  We hiked up the slopes to where the trail was indicated on the map but somehow missed it.  Eventually we reached the saddle After some not super difficult off trail hiking.  From the saddle we headed south to Grass Mountains High Point.

Trail past the lakes.

Nearing the saddle with Grassy Twin Peak in the background.

Grassy Twin Peak.

There was an occasional trail to follow but the terrain was easy enough to navigate.  There is a fun class 2/3 section on the narrow ridge on the way to Grass Mountains HP.  I guess I was having too much fun hiking because I didn't take many pictures here.  The other thing I did not get a picture of is the "Ramp" section that is an important part of the route up Grass Mountains HP.  Take the ramp furthest left and you'll be in business.

Grass Mountains HP.

Frog Lake.

After the Ramp the route is easy to follow class 2 terrain to the wide open summit.

Wide open summit of Grass Mountains HP.

Selfie.

Grassy Twin.

Skies were gray and appeared to be getting lower so we didn't hang too long.  We reversed our route to Grassy Twin.  I aimed to side hill a bit of the false summit.  From there it's another fun and narrow ridge to the summit slope.  Easy class 3ish stuff to the small summit perch.

Metamorphic rock.

Looking back to the false summit on Grassy Twin.

Base of the summit slope.

Lower Grass Mountain Lake. Our camp site was in the clearing on the left side if the shore.

Hard Benchmark.

Grass Mountains HP.

Summit shot.  Kissy face used in conjunction with kissy sounds to entice the dog to face the camera.

I think we spent all of 5 breezy minutes on top.  I don't think anyone really wants to get rained on, so lets hit it.

Hiking along the ridge back to the saddle.

I was pretty sure I could see the trail cut into the hillside.  After 14 seconds of investigating the area that we marked were we reached the saddle I sound the trail, 30 feet above us.

Trail signage.

Hiking down the trail.

The trail was in pretty good shape here.  We passed one mountain biker on his way to Coffee Cup Lake.  That was the only other person we saw since we let the trail head.

Grass Mountain Lakes and Grassy Twin Peak.

We made it back to camp and packed up without a rain drop.  The sky was considerably darker now and the wind had picked up.  With rain jackets at the ready we pointed our boots toward the car and hiked out.

Hiking out.

Hiking out.

It was right about the moment that we got back to the car and took our packs off that the rain finally started.  Nothing like being in the right place at the right time!

Happy Trails!