Made the mistake of heading up Baldy yesterday with Sister Sally and Miracle Marilyn. Sally and I left our cars at the ranger station and carpooled with Marilyn who has AWD,
We had high hopes and carried everything (crampons, snowshoes, helmet, ice-axe, micros). Took one look at the bowl from the road and changed plans. Headed up Register Ridge. This route takes much longer when you're three little old ladies carrying heavy packs
Meet a nice guy and leap frogged with him throughout the day.Went up Harwood to avoid dealing with the dicey parts of DBB. Of course going up the DBB and the summit were windy, so we tagged the sign and headed down out of the wind to have lunch. We didn't encounter many other folks on the descent, a nice change from our usual experience on the ski hut trail.
As we neared the road, the sirens and voices were an omen of the commotion at Manker. Forget commotion-- it was CHAOS
Cars were parked illegally on the dirt road in front of the gate and double parked on the road. Horns sounded constantly. Carmageddon 
It was a relief to get back to the village -- there were still cars driving UP. Sally and I ate dinner at the Baldy lodge, which was also jam-packed. Fortunately traffic had decreased by the time we started home.
We only used our micros. Oh well, good training for schlepping gear up from South Fork to the north chutes of San Gorgonio.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
