Lava Hot Springs/Baldy Mt./Swan Lake
Level of Difficulty: 5-Intermediate. Quite a bit of it is on jeep trails although their are some rocky areas and ruts. Going down the back side of Baldy is pretty step with a 1600 ft desent in a bit over two miles, although a decent trail.
Elevations: 4741 feet to 9193 feet.
Starting Point Coordinates: N42°36.174', W112°01.036'
Length of Trail: 68 miles
Approximate time: 5 hours
Date of Ride: July 8, 2006
To get to the unloading area, turn on the gravel road just before the cemetary. It is a short distance to the parking area and there will be a metal gate that you will ride through. It looks like private land, but there is public access through the gate. Click on the "to here" on the Unloading point for point to point directions.
(Click on 'View Larger Map" and then click on "View in Google Earth" to be able to tilt, spin and spin the map getting a true 3-D feel.
Elevation Profile:
Topo Over View of Ride
Picture location on Topo
Pic 1 -- Marcella still fresh and enjoying the ride!
Pic 2 -- Most of the road up is like this, but there were some places with 4-6" rocks that could roll under your tire. Marcella was a trooper through them, riding her bike like a bucking bronco, never putting her feet down, but going near sideways on the road!
Pic 3 -- The hills were alive with wildflowers. This is one of many pictures of beautiful wild flowers.
Pic 4 -- We were getting ready for more of a climb.
Pic 5 -- Back into more of a forested area.
Pic 6 -- Over looking Grace, ID.
Pic 7 --Looking North from the summit of Baldy Mountian.
Pic 8 -- Marcella wondering if there is another way down off of the mountain where there weren't those crazy rocks to roll under her tires. Wanting a bit of adventure I saw a trail heading down to the south, hoping it would loop around to Dempsy Creek and back to where we were parked. (that was my first wrong assumption.)
Pic 9 -- The trail started off really pleasant, nice dirt trail with almost no rocks, but as it wound around to the right it became very steep! Dropping 1600 ft in about 2 1/2 miles. After Marcella dumped her bike twice, we needed a new plan. I road her bike down the last of the steep part, realizing we were at a place of no return. She asked me if I was going get her out before dark! We had started the ride on a Saturday evening around 7 p.m. It was going to be just a short ride of a couple hours. By the time we had gotten to the bottom of the mountian it was pushing 9 p.m. I had a GPS unit but hadn't figured out how to down load the map detail yet so I just had major roads and a compass to know which direction we were heading.
This was the first of several dead ends, with private property, no tresspassing signs. If you look close we were rewarded with a close up view of a buck mule deer still in the velvet.
After several dead end trails I decided that we had better just get on a road and get going as it was getting dark by then. Twenty-five miles later, freezing because we didn't have even a jacket and the mountain air was very cold, we ended up at a farm house with the lights still on. It was 11 p.m. by then and we had very little idea of where we were. The family was very nice, lent us jackets and allowed us to leave Marcella's bike there so we could make time. We were just outside of Swan Lake and so it was another 35 miles to get back to Lava Hot Springs where we had parked. He offered me gas, but I thought I was fine. As it turned out I had to hit the reserve about 8 miles from where we had parked.
We got home about 1 a.m. in the morning and I had a great illustration about finding the will of God to add to my sermon that morning! It turned out to be quite the wild adventure.
This page last motified: August 31, 2007