Hiking Mt. Borah has been on our bucket list for the last few years and we finally got it done in September. Mt. Borah is the highest peak in Idaho with the summit at 12,662 ft. The hike is about 9 miles round trip and you gain about 5,400 feet in elevation in the 4.5 miles to the top. We did a lot of hiking this summer to make sure that we were prepared. We dropped our kids off at my Mom's on Sunday Sept. 12th and headed towards Arco and Challis. The plan was to stop in Arco to grab dinner before heading the last little bit to the camp ground at the base of the mountain. Craig called the restaurant to make sure that it would be open that evening and was told it would be, but when we pulled up lo and behold it was closed and nothing else in the town was open. So our dinner that night came straight from the gas station, what a great prep meal. After eating in the car we headed to the base of the mountain and got the car ready for us to sleep in. Craig's Dad let us borrow his Yukon so we could just lay the back down and in the car, rather than having to set up a tent and take it back down in the morning. So we blew up our air mattresses and rolled out the sleeping bags and got as much sleep as we could. Since we were hiking late in the season and on a Monday it wasn't very busy, so we were able to "sleep in" a little bit and not start our hike until about 7:30am. It was a little chilly when we first started so we layered up but quickly got hot as we started our steep climb. The first 2 miles were very steep switch backs that were covered in gravel. We then hit a plateau with a little bit more of a gradual ascent until we hit Chicken Out Ridge. We had heard a lot about chicken out ridge and weren't too nervous about it. You definitely needed to be cautious and needed to use your hands, but there were a lot of pockets to put your hands in as you climbed along this "spine". There were major drop offs on both sides and if you are scared of heights it would make it a lot more difficult, but we felt safe the whole time. After chicken out ridge we came to a saddle before climbing down a 20 foot drop off with a rope that someone else had attached. By this point we were ready to summit. It seemed so close but yet so far away. The last 1000ft or so to the summit took us about an hour and because we couldn't see the trail we ended up bouldering all the way to the top. While we were doing this I was getting nervous about having to come back down, but luckily once we got to the top we saw the trail and were able to follow that back down. By the time we got to this last little bit we were getting pretty tired and could definitely feel the affects of the altitude. We had to stop about every few minutes to catch our breathe real quick. We finally made it to the top after about 4 hours. It was so beautiful at the top, but because of all of the smoke from wildfires we couldn't see as far as we had hoped, but the view was truly magical. The mountains and peaks were so majestic. We hung out at the summit for about 20 minutes to rest and eat and hydrate and to document our arrival. When you get to the top there is a box up there that has a notebook so you can sign your name and put the date. Just the Saturday before there had been a lot of people up the mountain, but lucky for us we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves. Since we were able to see the trail on our way back down it made a much quicker descent. We took a couple of quick breaks on our way back down, included a 20 minute break chatting with the one guy we saw on the trail. We ended up making it back down in 2 1/2 hours. We were really hauling. Round trip took us just under 7 hours. Once we got back down to the bottom we quickly loaded back up and drove back home. We both woke up the next morning pretty sore. It was tough going up and down stairs for a few days, but by Wednesday afternoon we were feeling pretty good. It was quite an adventure and we are so glad that we finally got it done. I don't know if either of us care to do it again, but it is pretty cool to say that we've done it. Now to figure out what our next big adventure will be.
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