4488 Feet - A Personal Summit

On Monday, Jenny and I took an all-morning trek up the Hard Guy Trail, No. 33 in the Ridge-to-Rivers system in the Boise Foothills. For hikers like us, it provides one of the most direct routes to the summit of Boise Peak. Our goal was to make 5,000 feet elevation.

We accessed this trail from the Corrals Trailhead off Bogus Basin road. The lower portion of the trail was desert country and offered no shade whatsoever. (While we read later that the higher portion is in thick forest, we never made it that high.)

Our total roundtrip mileage was about 7.4 miles with 1764-foot elevation gain.


From the trailhead, we started out on the Corrals Trail (No.31) for about 1.5 miles. We enjoyed the color and fragrance of lupine blossoming on the hills.


We then passed through a gate and headed down into a ravine to cross Crane Creek.


From there on Hard Guy will constantly gain elevation and take you to the top of a beautiful ridge with deep ravines on either side. Boise skyline was visible almost the entire time so you could keep your bearings.

Once we reached our personal summit at 4488 feet, we stopped to capture a photo of our accomplishment.