Old Hyndman

Old Hyndman - 11,775 Feet

The summit of Old Hyndman from below. The black rock dyke is in the middle of the open book.

Trip Report (8/17/2003):
Did a bike/hike/scramble of Old Hyndman in the Pioneer Mountains with Vince, Matt, and Matt's girlfriend Jody.

The bike in nearly killed me. It was 3 miles and like 1500 feet. My lungs and thighs were burning. I hadn't felt that out of shape for an activity since my early hiking days and back at two-a-day football practices in high school. Despite all that, they were very supportive and said I was doing great for my first outing, which helped a bunch.

We ditched the bikes in a forested area, then continued on the road, which became a trail, until it reached Big Basin. From here we made a navigational mistake, as we had no map. We were supposed to head into a basin above Big Basin immediately south of Cobb Mountain. Instead, we continued up the basin and went too far south. Realizing our mistake, we traversed across a hillside and into that other basin. The basin below Cobb was incredible. It is a world of striped, glittering, and colorful rocks, tundra, small lakes, and grassy meadows; all surrounded by towering walls rising to the peaks above it. This basin leads to saddle just south of Old Hyndman. From here it was 500-600 feet up, with the end of it in a steep, but easy black rock gully that had plenty of hand-holds and very little loose rock. In fact, there was little loose rock on the entire route.

The summit has great views. Nearby are gnarly Cobb Mountain, steep-looking Hyndman Peak, dramatic Wildhorse Canyon, views of lakes, the entire Lost River range, and hundreds of other mountains. We found a summit register on top.

The weather was excellent throughout the day. It was a bit cold to start the hike, but the skies were a deep blue throughout the day. It warmed up later, but there was a bit of wind up high that was manageable.

The ride out was short and fast. I just got a tight grip and held on, trying to avoid any big rocks, but keep my speed up enough to not get too far behind the other riders (experienced). I have to compare it to a carnival ride… fast, quick, a bit nerving, but a blast!

Add all that up, and this was one of my favorite Idaho peaks to date!

Trip stats:
Mileage: 12 (5 on bikes)
Elevation gain: 4,700 feet (1100 on bikes)
Time: 7.5 hours
Class (difficulty): 3

Directions:
Turn east onto the East Fork Wood River Road from Highway 75. The turnoff is about 5.5 miles south of the town of Ketchum. Reset your odometer. You will reach the small village of Triumph at 5.8 miles, just keep heading east on the road. Shortly after Triumph the road becomes dirt. Continue east on the road when you see the turn-off for the Hyndman Creek trailhead at 7.2 miles. Take a left onto Forest Service road 203 at the fork. Follow 203 until it meets up with the confluence of the North Fork Hyndman Creek and Hyndman Creek and the trailhead. Park here. Cross Hyndman Creek on a foot bridge and follow the old jeep road through aspens and meadows along Hyndman Creek.

Route:
See the trip report above...

Pictures: Click on the pictures below to see the full-size version.


Cobb Peak from Big Basin.	Wildhorse Canyon, from the base of Old Hyndman.	Matt ascending as we near the summit.


Vince inside the "black rock dike", a cool feature of this hike.	Cobb Peak from Old Hyndman.	Hyndman Basin from Old Hyndman.

Goat Peak and Devils Bedstead.	Arrowhead Lake.	Matt, Jody & the dogs.