Kepros Mountain

With our planned climb of Mount St. Helens a little over a month away Tam and I decided to get out and put in a few miles to get in shape.  Our objective was Kepros Mountain, one of the Boise Mountains "Grand Slam" peaks.  I had climbed Kepros with Dylan and his buddy Max a couple of years ago from the Lucky Peak (shorter) side.  This hike was from the "traditional" side.

Tam, Shadow and I arrived at the Three Point Mountain parking area a little after 8AM and had the parking area to ourselves.  A bit surprising, since we could hear the motorcycles tearing things up close by.  It was a gorgeous day, mid 50's, no clouds and a slight breeze.  The balsam arrowroot flowers were out in full force.

We didn't see much wildlife, only a single deer and a few tent caterpillars. But those caterpillars sure are cool!

We quickly made headway up the initial steep portion of the trail and gained the ridge in no time.  Once there our objective was in sight, though a few miles away.

Kepros on the left

Tam and I had tried to mountain bike this trail last summer and beat ourselves up pretty good on the sagebrush single track before turning around.  Turns out that once you get past the single track there is an old two track road to the summit.  Looks like this would be a good ride.

Tam looking back on the trail (two track road)

We made the summit in a little over 2 hours, not bad for the 4.5 miles journey.

Summit Splattski with my babe and my new RX sunglasses

After a quick PB&J sandwich, it was time to motor back.  We made great time on the return trip even though it was starting to heat up into the high 60's, and arrived back at the car in 2 hours.

Great day to be in the hills with two of my three girls.

Stats:

Distance: 9.5 miles

Elevation: ~2500 feet (cumulative)

Time: 4.5 hours car to car