hike Watchman trail, north of Boise, Idaho - part 2

Watchman trail is a mountain bike trail located just a few miles northeast of Boise in the hills along a forest road and off the beaten path if you like a little solitude with your hike.

The trail climbs from the creek up the ridges between rock formations winding from ridge to ridge, and is very scenic. In the distance south, you can see the Boise skyline.

The trail was designed to be a mountain bike trail and in all other regards is very suitable for hiking. When Pearl and I hiked this trail we only saw a few people, although there were several other cars at the trailhead when we arrived, but were mostly gone when we got back.

When we hiked this trail it was a warm day, in the high 70's to low 80's with a little breeze, and partly cloudy, but intermittantly the full sun making it feel like the lower 90's except for the cooling effects of the wind chill. The humidity was moderately high so it felt pretty hot, and I sweated quite a bit hiking along, and Pearl was hot too as you can see from the pictures.

The trail doesn't have any cliffs or steep ravines or other things that might put off someone afraid of heights, although there was a steep hill along the trail for a little ways near the beginning, but it's not much. For my personal preferences, I prefer the large vertical variations in elevation. But the few rock formations along the way make it scenic.

All in all, except for the warm temperature, it was a very pleasant hike, I would recommend it to anybody who likes a scenic hike (or mountain bike ride), and a nice short walk in nature.

I would recommend days when the temperature is below 70F, because there is almost no shade on the hike, so in the sun, it is constantly roughly about 20F hotter than the air temperature.

On hotter days, one needs to get out at 6AM, and get back by 10AM, or go out at 5PM and make it a night hike with headlamps and flashlights.

Part of the trail goes along the creek, where there is less of a breeze there than the breeze that is up along the ridge. It feels a lot hotter there along the creek in the sun. The loop that we walked was about 7 miles that we hiked. There are a lot of trails connecting that could alternatively be taken if you wish a different length or path. But this is a nice option.