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| Sunset Mountain is located north of Idaho City, near Mores Creek Summit on Highway 21. It�s a fairly popular snowshoeing destination since it�s not too far from Boise, and the surrounding terrain provides for minimal avalanche risk. The main route follows a snow-covered jeep road from Mores Creek Summit to the lookout on Sunset Mountain.
I hadn�t been on snowshoes since I was kid. After mulling over a couple options, JJ and I chose Sunset. It had snowed the day before, so we were treated to about 8 inches of fresh powder. This made for a lot of pretty snow covered trees, but also made our pace kind of slow. We were able to stay with the trail most of the way until about the half-way point where it became a bit hard to make out. But we followed the general lay of the land and the occasional glimpse of the distant lookout tower kept us on track. At about a mile from the summit, we were tiring out, but my summit fever was kicking in so I forged on while JJ took a more leisurely pace. A couple hundred yards below the summit, the snow was wearing me out so I left the road and went cross-country to shave off some distance. It was pretty steep, but eventually I made it up to the frost covered lookout building. With a bit of low clouds, the views were kind of hazy, but still pretty cool. After taking a few photos, I headed back down to join JJ. We�d been separated for a while, and I hadn�t done a good job of setting the turnaround time, and apologized profusely when I caught up with him, already on his way back. Fortunately he didn�t beat me over the head with his ski poles (although he probably wanted to), and we made the trek back to car without incident. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version. |
 One of the first time the lookout comes into view, from a couple miles away. |
 JJ on the trail. |
 Another view of the lookout in the distance. |
 Me on the trail about half way there, view to the northeast. |
 Looking south from the trail across the Boise Basin to Schafer Butte and Mores Mountain. |
 Trees near the summit barely able to stand up due to a rime ice buildup. |
 The frozen lookout building. |
 Summit view to the south across the Boise Basin with Schafer Butte and Mores Mountain in the distance. |
 Freeman Peak and Pilot Peak, northwest of the summit. |