I hadn't been hiking with Zach in a few years (we used to hike together dozens of times a year, but now he has a couple of young ones occupying his time). I contacted him rather late in the week and asked if he'd be up for a peak that weekend. Surprisingly, he was interested and quickly got a hall pass.

Then the agonizing part of selecting a peak... we bounced ideas around and went with Zach's suggestion of Wolf Mountain.

We decided to climb the peak via Jennie Lake. I had heard this was a nice lake and an easy drive from Boise. We were all set and let Boise around 6:15am, arriving at the trailhead around 7:50am.

It was nice and shady for the first few miles of the trail, but I complained to Zach that the trail's ups and downs were going to suck on the way out. Eventually the trail enters more open terrain and becomes more consistent in its upward trek to Jennie Lake.

After an 1:40 of hiking, we had reached Jennie Lake and sat down for our first break of the day. There were 2 parties at the lake and we had past another on the trail heading out. We ate, hydrated, and enjoyed the beautiful lake.

Our next step was to work our way to the east side of the lake and try to gain the saddle between Peak 8610 and Point 8568. We accomplished that using a dirt ramp next to a boulder field. Zach and I had both heard horror stories about how bad this ascent was, but our route was quite stable, albeit steep.

This ramp got us to the saddle and directly below Peak 8610. Peak 8610 isn't the lame peak it appears to be on the topo map and is not flat and tree covered; but rather quite pointy, rocky, and bare. We didn't get to enjoy the summit much, as flying ants were everywhere. This is also about the time that the day had become quite warm and my sweat glands went into full release.

We descended to the saddle between Point 8568 and Wolf Mountain, then started towards Wolf Mountain. The terrain was fairly easy, until about 1/8th of a mile before the peak, where it started getting rocky. We made quick work of this section and were soon standing on our second summit of the day. The views of the surrounding mountains were impressive and we enjoyed them while reading the familiar names in the summit register.

The day had already been a bit tiring and we had 300 more feet to go back up and a 6-mile hike back to the car. So off we headed.

Other than a hot, tiring, sweaty hike (and those damn ups on the trail); things went great and we were back at the car and heading off to Idaho City for some soda and snacks.

Nice to find a pretty hike so close to Boise (60 miles is all). Also very nice to catch-up with Zach!

From Boise drive north on Idaho 21 through Idaho city. South of Banner ridge, just past the Whoop-um-up park and ski area, turn east onto forest road 384. The road is well-maintained, follow 384 for 6.3 miles to the junction with FS 348, which is just shy of the Willow Creek campground. Follow 348 for 7.4 miles, to the north is a small spur of a road with a sign reading "road closed 0.2 miles". Take this and park at the trailhead to Jennie Lake.

Hike to Jennie Lake. From Jennie Lake, hike to the saddle between Peak 8610 and Point 8568. Climb Peak 8610 and then descend to the saddle between Point 8568 and Wolf Mountain. Continue from the saddle to the summit of Wolf Mountain, which is briefly class 3 near the top.