I decided to spend the night at the top of Mt Baldy, and after arriving at the top before 11:00am, spent the day there watching wave after wave of day hikers come up and descend again. I'm sure over 200 people summited on Saturday, but there was never more than about 40 or 50 people on the summit at one time.
Storms came in off the desert all day and moved west to the north of Mt Baden-Powell, but twice they came right for us, with wind and rain and hail. The second time, in late afternoon, got me to pack up and head back down the mountain since my tarp shelter was not up to weathering such a storm.
On the way down I ran into Fritz coming up, and he convinced me to backtrack up to the sheltered spot a few hundred feet below the summit to set up camp for the night. I was wet and cold and got into his tent and stayed there as soon as it was set up, but Fritz wandered around the tops of the chutes after the rain stopped around 7:30pm.
The next day was beautiful, and we were both up at the crack of dawn to take some more photos.
The highlight of the trip was the presence near the summit of a pair of bighorn sheep who lingered there all Saturday afternoon. I crept up to within about 50 yards of them.
Moar photos and details here.
Mt Baldy overnight 30-31 May
Nunc est bibendum
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cougarmagic
- Posts: 1409
- Joined: Wed May 07, 2008 5:21 pm
Beautiful pics!
Nice sheep sighting. (Eveyone sees them but me
)
Nice sheep sighting. (Eveyone sees them but me
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Richard N.
- Posts: 91
- Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:47 pm
I was on Baldy early Saturday. Started out @ 6:15am. I hiked up under the lifts and across to Harwood and then on to Badly. I was on the summit @9:45am. Only a few people there but within 15 minutes the masses arrived. I headed out around 10am via the ski hut trail. Holy Smoke!!! It was worse than the 405 during rush hour. Even back a the hut there were maybe 50 people and more hiking in. Not sure if I'll be back there any time soon. For sure not on the weekends. WAY to many people on the trail. I heard Ice House Canyon was a zoo as well.
I was back in my car @ 1:00pm and enjoying BBQ by 4pm.
Other than the masses, the day was picture perfect for hiking.
I was back in my car @ 1:00pm and enjoying BBQ by 4pm.
Other than the masses, the day was picture perfect for hiking.
UPS just brought me a bivy sack yesterday. Now I can sleep anywhere regardless of weather.
Nunc est bibendum