By headlamp we started up Baldy and shortly after the ski hut ran into Patrick & Shin. We shared a birthday cookie on the summit with them before we bid farewell and never saw another soul for the rest of the day. A quick visit to West Baldy and then we began the descent and traverse. We lost an hour of time and a pint of blood each when we lost the trail near the ridge and chose not to ascend and find it but try and shove our bodies through buckthorn. It was so frickin’ painful that the F-word doesn’t even begin to describe it unless you yell it really, really loud!!! We have a new word for Buckthorn and it doesn’t begin with B. A short break to wipe the blood from our legs and we were on our way.
When the trail drops on the north slope of the SA ridge we were hiking in 3-4 inches of snow, which though beautiful, slowed us down. We chose not to use our micro-spikes and carefully negotiated the snow and not quite frozen rocks on the steep slopes. The San Antonio Ridge is my favorite place in the San Gabriel Mountains as it affords you a breathtaking 360-degree view for miles and since it is rarely visited you barely see a footpath or evidence of human encroachment. You truly feel like a pioneer up there.
We took a very direct route through the Class 3 Gunsight notch and Dave commented it was his favorite climb of it yet as it was so direct that we never dropped too low. We ascended Big Iron at 4:45pm and celebrated with birthday cookies!! We watched the sunset as we descended the steep & god-awful Iron trail and made fun of the guy in the register that proudly claimed earlier today was his 50th Iron. What fool would want to do Iron Mtn 50 times??? We found Dave’s car at Heaton way too late and too tired to howl a Woo Hoo, but grateful we made it.
I was buying an In ‘n Out burger (which I rarely eat) at 12:50am in La Verne and collapsed in bed at 1:47. It was actually 2:47am but the end of daylight savings gave me an hour. Long day but so worth it to celebrate my #1 hiking bud, the unstoppable Dave G! Stats: 15.7 miles, 6,106 foot gain, 10,003 foot loss in 16 hours. (btw, last year we did a yo-yo SA Traverse Baldy-Iron-Baldy in 18.5 hrs. The pace today was leisurely.)
Energy food to propel this adventure: Homemade chocolate chip cookies
Summit #1. Me, Dave, Patrick and Shin
On the descent from West Baldy to the S.A. Ridge
Snowfitti
Buckthorn with a trail broken through like it is here it is for the recreational hiker. We prefer the real thing. NOT!
Results of the real thing.
A look back from where we came
Iron looks close, but it's not. Not complaining, as the ridge is so beautiful it's a joy to traverse.
Enjoying the peace and near solitude. (Remember, poor Dave had me along!
)
The pièce de résistance begins... Gunsight Notch. Way fun!!
Best class 3 choss in the San Gabriel Mountains
Davey like it!
So do I!
In his happy place.
View of Peak 6857 and Ontario where Turtle recently spent a breezy night
Victory for the Birthday Boy!
All smiles now. You should have seen us at about 4k feet lower when we still had 2k to descend. Smile gone.
The sun says goodbye as we descend Iron
Link to complete album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1152949450 ... verse11213#
Link to album from Nov 2012 when we did the S.A. Ridge Yo-Yo, Baldy-Iron-Baldy:
https://picasaweb.google.com/1152949450 ... erse111812#
