Big Baldy Loop - 5/14/11

Rick Kent · Post by **Rick Kent** » Tue May 17, 2011 8:53 am

While not quite back up to the level of doing Baldy 5x in a day I did manage to put the ankle to a test on Saturday. It was time again to see how much it could take. I was pleasantly surprised. I managed to hit my goal of 11 peaks. It definitely felt harder at times than I remember but the ankle didn't really become a problem. In fact toward the end it was my knees that had the most trouble.

I parked at the picnic/rest area half way between the Baldy Village and Icehouse Canyon. Went up Falling Rock Canyon. Tagged Sugarloaf, then on to Ontario and Bighorn. Up the switchbacks, over to Etiwanda, and back to Cucamonga. Ate lunch at Icehouse Saddle then hit Timber, Telegraph (ugh), and Thunder. Got a coke at Baldy Notch which perked me up enough to continue on. Nearly got blown off Harwood. Reached summit of Baldy at 6:30pm. It was windy and freezing cold so I quickly continued on over to West Baldy (peak #11). From there it was down the Bear Canyon trail back to the village and then finally an annoying mile back up the road to the car. Total day was around 15 hours. So nothing grand but it does feel good to be getting back closer to normal.

-Rick

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Tue May 17, 2011 9:00 am

Rick Kent wrote: ... Nearly got blown off Hardward.... So nothing grand but it does feel good to be getting back closer to normal.
-Rick

Hardward. cute
nothing grand. BS
normal. not ever!
good job Rick.

obie · Post by **obie** » Tue May 17, 2011 9:03 am

Excellent.

Rick: are you wearing any sort of brace on the ankle/knee? Interested if you would share any changes you've made to boots etc.

I have started using an ankle brace (runs about 4 inches above the ankle itself) and find it stabalizes my ankle and, thus, less movement in knee. My knee has become the issue when hiking, hoping this brace will turn things for the better. Have also been wearing 24/7 an extra wide pair of Merrills - the wider platform is much more comfortable. All my other shoes/boots I've stopped wearing.

TracieB · Post by **TracieB** » Tue May 17, 2011 9:23 am

11 peaks and 15 hours -

Congrats Rick! I don't know why Harwood was so windy and not most of the other peaks, but it was windy for us as well. We only did 3 peaks - that can be officially classified as nothing special.

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Tue May 17, 2011 9:30 am

Nice going, Rick! Glad to see you back out again.

Rick Kent · Post by **Rick Kent** » Tue May 17, 2011 9:38 am

Hey Obie!

A few months back I tried a couple different ankle braces, wrapping, etc. but didn't really find anything I liked. When I needed it my stiffer hiking boots offered more support than anything else but I prefer to hike in my lighter shoes/boots. I still have some pain in the ankle but it's definitely manageable (always a bit stiff when I get up) and by the end of the day everything else hurts about the same. I'm also not using any hiking poles either. So basically I'm putting the maximum stress on it that I can. The majority of my weekends over the past few months have been canyoneering. That might actually have been a good thing since downclimbing and scrambling over endless rocks/boulders puts the ankles through extreme range of motion.

Ze Hiker · Post by **Ze Hiker** » Tue May 17, 2011 10:34 am

oh good, Rick's back. I've got a route for you...

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue May 17, 2011 10:47 am

[yawn] Yep, only 11 peaks on a busted ankle. Nuthin' special.

HJ

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Tue May 17, 2011 12:50 pm

Hey Rick, I've noticed that you always(?) start the loop with Sugarloaf and go counter-clockwise. Any particular reason? I prefer the other way because you start & finish downhill

Rick Kent · Post by **Rick Kent** » Tue May 17, 2011 1:22 pm

I definitely considered reversing it this time and almost did but for 2 reasons I decided to go the same way. For one, with 11 peaks, daylight would be a problem toward the end. Coming down the Bear Canyon trail in the dark is far less of a problem than coming down Falling Rock Canyon (from Sugarloaf) in the dark. Second, doing it the same way would allow me to gauge my performance compared to the last time.

RichardK · Post by **RichardK** » Thu May 19, 2011 2:19 pm

Let's see, big Baldy loop with 11 peaks to test a recovering ankle. When it's fully healed, maybe you want something more challenging like K2?