We started this adventure at Canyon Lake Marina. It was still dark. We needed our headlamps going up Boulder Canyon Trail #103. It was still cool in the morning, for that we were glad, because I already rescheduled this hike because of the heat.

We climbed about 1000 feet, where we stopped to take our group picture and admire the beautiful view of Canyon Lake. It was very exciting during this hike! Everyone had so much energy and excitement that I could feed from it. You could see everyone. Tom, Carolyn, Li, Terry and myself loved to be out again in the outdoors.

Descending down the trail you could see the dry creek of LaBarge. After descending nearly 900 feet we crossed over LaBarge Creek. We continued on Boulder Canyon Trail until we reached Indian Paint Mine. There we took a short snack break, then continued to the junction of Second Water Trail.

We stayed on Bolder Canyon Trail, were we crossed Boulder Creek several times. The trail sometimes was a little hard to follow. I suggest an APP to follow. After a little over a mile we left the towards the southern end of Battleship Mountain.

There is no signage from this point, so I was very glad Tom and Li and downloaded this track to their phones. We were able to follow cairns to navigate up the Mountain to the Saddle. There is where it gets fun. We started navigating to where the description said a 6-8 foot climb up the wall. After climbing up that, it seems to be easy. Then it starts getting a little tricky. There are a few drop-offs.

We finally reached the bridge, this scares many people there is drop-off on both sides. We were starting to have trouble navigating our way. Tom read the description to me about ball bearings on granite. We found our way but I slipped down twice. No major injuries yet.

Then comes a near vertical wall. I am hearing talk of going back at this time. Somehow we make it up this wall. The real fear was how we were going to get down. There was a little more scrambling, but we made it to the Battleship Mountain Summit. You had great view all directions, views of Geronimo Head, Malapais Mountain. We took a well-deserved lunch at this time. We looked for the sign-in box, but someone had stolen it or had removed it.

When we got back to this vertical wall, it wasn’t as hard to get down as everyone thought. We made it back to the saddle where we headed down to LaBarge Creek. We took the advice to take the extra ¼ mile Bruce had told me to get to the LaBarge Box. He said it was well worth the extra trek. Yes, it was, and it was so amazing.

We all took a break hear looking up at the cliffs. From here we bolder-happed down LaBarge Creek down to where Bolder Canyon Trail is, there is no sign but we found it. After leaving the creek it climbs another 900 feet, and at this time it was getting very warm. It was such a relief when we made it back up, even though we still had a couple miles to go, but it was mostly downhill.

We could finally see Canyon Lake again! We helped energize us to the finish line. We finished this hike at 5 PM.

10 hours 15 Miles, +-3500' elevation gain. We then decided to eat at the Well Done Grill at Canyon Lake, a short walk away. The food and company was great. The sun quickly set, and you could see the moon light reflecting of the water.