All right so here we are, this is Charcoal Gulch. We are right
outside Idaho City and already the weather's coming down
and you're probably saying to yourself why can this guy not look at a weather
report and I have to tell you I do look at the
weather report and the weather was supposed to be a little rain
yesterday, sunshine today. And so far today we've
had rain, we've had hail, we've got a little bit of
wind and now it's kind of coming down. That's just
Idaho for you. You do your best, as the saying goes there's no such thing
as bad weather only bad gear. So to get to Charcoal
Gulch it's really easy. It is in Idaho City. You go through Idaho City
and you make a left on Montgomery which is where the big ice cream parlor
is located. You go about three blocks there and
you make a left on Wall Street. You will see the airport on your left,
you'll see a bathroom, everything will dead end, and there is
the start of the Buena Vista Loop and the
Buena Vista Loop Trail is pretty nice I saw a nice old man with his dog and
the airport disappears pretty quick and it's very level.
It's a nice little, I think it's about a mile loop.
Wow it's really coming down now, I should probably put my camera away.
A half mile down the Buena Vista Trail Loop will be
a junction sign for Charcoal Gulch. It's a five mile out and back as soon as
I turned on charcoal gulch I saw areas to camp. So if you've got
kids or something and you don't want to make this
a big trip you can set up camp pretty quickly and of course like
most of these hikes that I've been doing you could just make them a day trip.
I better continue on. The sun is now out with the hail and the rain so i mean
that's just Idaho for you and I guess I better put my rain gear on.
Of course as soon as i put my rain gear on
the weather got pretty nice and I have blue skies and some nice puffy clouds
out here. I made it, I made it to the top. I have
come to an old forest service road
that I read doesn't get much use if any. That hike is kind of tough. I don't know
if it's because I hiked so much yesterday or what but
you gain 950 feet in elevation. It's a climb for two and a half miles
you're going up. So i'm gonna take a look around and
assess this situation and see if i can find a spot to stay the night.
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So I've taken a look around.
There isn't really any camping, I mean there's tons of space to set up the camp
but there's no really good dispersed camping spots.
There's this old forest service road and telephone wires and poles up here.
The biggest kicker is there's no water up here, there's no
creek, there's no stream. Right at the beginning
of this trail. Right when you enter this thick
ponderosa growth forest there's dispersed camping and
it's really close to the trailhead and so i'm
gonna take my pack and everything back to that spot
and i'm gonna set up camp there and then I'm gonna go into Idaho City,
get a burger or something. So I think that's the best plan and
that's what i'm gonna do. I'm gonna hike back down, I'm gonna set up camp there,
I'm gonna go into town, I'm gonna eat, I'm gonna come back.
It'll take me a half mile, easy stroll out to my campsite,
and I'm gonna stay the night.
So I've woken up and of course today is the bluebird day.
There isn't a cloud in the sky the sun is out. So Charcoal Gulch what is
Charcoal Gulch? I think Charcoal Gulch and the
Buena Vista Loop Trail is a day trip. I think you and your whole
family can do it and if you don't want to go that high in
elevation you can just do the mile loop of the Buena Vista Trail.
I have camped here but I think the real move here
is to come up and visit Idaho City and factor this into your plans. You know
come up, hit The Springs, come do this hike,
grab some dinner, and head home. Especially if you're from Boise
or if you're just visiting Boise. If you've never been to Idaho City
it's real old school classic Idaho and it's less crowded than McCall or Stanley
and it's even closer to Boise than those two spots.
Next week we're going to be over by the Boise River again close to the town of
Atlanta Idaho and we're going to do a trail down there
that i know is a great backpacking spot. So hit that
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