06092012 Baldy Loop

[echristensen]

Nothing super original here, just a pleasant (and challenging) day outdoors.

I decided to give the Three T's / Baldy / Bear Canyon loop a try, and since I didn't have a proper permit for Icehouse Canyon, reasoned that it might be best to get thru that section first - I later regretted this move when having to slog back from Baldy Village in the mid-afternoon sun. I was on the trail by 530am, Icehouse Canyon is always really nice, I can see why it does become rather impacted. After pulling off a layer at the saddle I continued on to Timber, down the other side, climbed up to Telegraph - and finally onto Timber. Once inside the ski area the temps seemed to warm up and i joined the fairly heavy stream of other hikers coming off the lifts marching up the Devil's Backbone. At this point i was starting to tire and just focused on getting to the summit to rehydrate and eat something. Once on top, I found it was thick with people - so I pushed on to West Baldy for a bit of solitude. I ate a bit and started heading down around 11am. The decent wasn't bad, coming down to Bear Flats is a bit shitty, but after that its mostly shaded. I got back to the car with tender feet and a pretty good neck sunburn - always a gauge of a good outing.


its here that you realize you've got a long way to go


looking east on the way up telegraph


the amazing west side that drops into cattle canyon


looking back across, and down to the car

[GandC]

Wow. That's a heck of a day of hiking. Thanks for the TR, I'm headed up Baldy Tuesday.

[titanhangman]

A few of my friends and I ended up doing this hike by mistake in 2009 as we prepared for Whitney a couple weeks later. Our plan was to do Icehouse and the 3 T's, then up the DB and down the Ski Hut trail. We had always gone up the Ski Hut trail before, and never up the DB, so being unfamiliar with the way down we ended up going down the Bear Flat trail and into the village.

After a while we knew we'd screwed the pooch, and we were just hopeful that we were going to end up in civilization before it got dark. One of our guys was a manimal (half man, half animal!) and he ran down the trail, up to the IH Canyon parking lot and had the car waiting in the village parking lot when we finally got there. I think that mistake proved fortuitous, and we were much better prepared for our successful Whitney in-a-day hike when the time came.

[Elwood]

Beautiful pictures. Great trip report too!