Head up to Baldy area for a 4 peak loop with the Outdoors Club. 9 of us left Manker at about 7:30 and went up the ski hut trail to Baldy. After a short break we headed over to Dawson, then onto Pine. Hiking back up to Baldy from the Dawson/Baldy saddle was brutal. That is one steep trail. Once we climbed back up to Baldy we went down the Backbone and hit Harwood on the way. Took the fire road back down from the notch to Manker. We were back at the cars at about 6:15. The Gps calculated this hike at 15.4 miles with 7580 vertical gain. Not sure how accurate that is, but its probably close.
We saw a hunter at that the Fish Creek/North Back Bone trail junction, and heard several gunshots while we were hiking. Is hunting legal in this area?Look out for those hunters!!!!
The weather was cool and partly cloudy with thick a fog at about 4000k. It was pretty cold on Baldy with a good steady wind blowing. Some clouds blew onto the peaks on occasion reducing visibility, but over all the weather was great. Some small patches of snow, but mostly rime ice above 8500k feet from Friday nights storm. Most of it had already melted by afternoon.
Here are a few pics: