I hollered at the people on the social media things that I wanted to do a full moon hike/climb up Baldy this season to see if there were any takers. It's incredibly beautiful being up there after dark with all that lunar illumination, you don't need a headlamp, and you've likely got the whole place to yourself. Snow conditions tend to be firm so climbing is efficient and positive. I used to be up on Baldy in my early 20's after dark when I was climbing this or that odd route and hiking out, so I had early memories of it that inspired the present. On New Years Day I was up on Islip after dark with maybe a half moon or so and it was beautiful. That was a bikeaneering trip as well. I think this was my third time riding to and then climbing Baldy.
Anywho, I didn't really have any takers from the social media posts, but Kris wanted to ride to Baldy or thereabouts with me, so we stated a 0900 meetup at the bottom of frontside of GMR. I texted Dima at the last minute and he was down to do the climb. He was busy during the day so he would drive up at meet me at Wanker Flat around 1500. It typically takes me about 6 hours to get to Wanker Flat from the city on a loaded bike at a casual pace, same as Crystal Lake conveniently enough. I met Kris at the bottom of frontside and we rolled on up the hill, marveling at the number of cyclists. Got into a conversation with two entertaining ladies near the top who told tales of misadventures on San Gorgonio. Glendora Ridge Road is closed, so we crossed the gate and enjoyed the lack of traffic.
We were moving pretty fast at times and I remarked to Kris that I'll probably regret pushing the pace while I was going up Baldy. The road was clean and clear for the most part, with the usual amount of rocks and several bands of ice that were easy to avoid on the eastern section. The views were great as always. Man, I'm not writing very creatively right now huh? What the hell can one expect. I've done this a thousand times. What do you want? Damn kids. Anyway, we rode bikes and kept going. I told Kris he should ride down Sunset Truck Trail, as he hadn't yet. It's fun. Do you like fun? Maybe you should do it.
We refilled our bottles at Baldy Lodge and continued up the hill. It feels pretty steep beyond the bridge after town, steeper than I remember. Maybe just cause I'm on a heavy bike. Icehouse Canyon parking lot was jam packed as usual. Blah blah blah, kept going up the switchbacks, got to Wanker around 1430 and unpacked my stuff to go into HIKING MODE. Uhoh, people on facebook are saying it's not hiking but mountaineering. Well, yeah, they're correct. It is but I am writing and I'm human and tired, and that's a really long word right now. Dima showed up a lil before 1500, we all said hi and Kris headed down the hill to go home.
Dima and I started up the trail and I hauled my bike up to a hiding spot near the start of the hiking or whatever. We saw a young man dressed like some sort of mountaineering spiderman in all blue with very fancy gear and I was shaken to the core. I felt like I was watching The Expanse or something and he was some sort of Super Belter or something. I ran into Gil for the first time after talking to him online for years. Very cool to finally meet you! We also ran into George, who told me I insulted him by banning him or something cause he caused issues on the forum back in the day. I don't even remember what happened back then. Anyway, he wants to come back. You guys think he should? He's probably reading this right now.
We got to the hut and put our mountaineering crap on. I brought some mid weight long johns which I figured would be great. I hadn't really eaten much today so I had a couple PB tortillas and some assorted other objects, then put shit I didn't need for the summit in the little mesh hut storage thing. A nice guy named Ben came down the bowl on his splitboard and we talked a little. He seemed tired. This was because he just finished splitboarding the Three Saints, that is San J, San G, and Baldy in 24 hours. Very cool! Hope you're reading this, dude. Post up a trip report!! We congratulated him and I wished him safe travels to somewhere to sleep and then eat a lot.
We aimed to go up the right side of the bowl and just 'play it by ear'. I just figured out what that saying means right now as I was about to type that I still don't get it. Some musician shit. I'm not a musician, not talented or anything, just a manual laborer with bad memory. Some ice chunks were coming down from the trees and stuff above so we moved further right and no longer had this problem. The snow was usually nice and firm and progress was easy. I slowed way down about halfway up and got really really slow, stopping to breathe and slow my heartrate which felt very high. The light was spectacular as the moon crested Harwood and cast shadows in the bowl.
This is why we did this whole thing. I told Dima to turn his headlamp off and bam! He remarked at how beautiful it was. We didn't need em until the way down below the hut under the trees.
Dima kept up a good pace and I dragged ass pretty far behind him, catching up to him and then stopping to catch my breath and get lost in thought as my heart pounded, shaking my upper body. Riding here does change the whole thing and make the mountain much larger. If anyone thinks Baldy is easy and they're not using their own physical power to get there from home closer to sea level, well, there's your sign. Go ride or hike up from the very bottom or more. That's the difference between a hike and an adventure or whatever you wanna say, however you wanna word it. I was pretty damn ready to be done with this by now. I was mentally sharp but my legs were tired in a way I hadn't felt in some time. Snow conditions made me turn further right and I aimed for the backbone. The wind picked up the closer we got to the ridge and as we crested it I saw we still had that much more to get to the summit. The familiar feeling of looking at the low angled slope to the summit but being tired and ready to be done. I plodded slowly up the ridge, facing northeast to keep my face out of the now brutal wind. Shoulda brought a balaclava, and baklava as well. Mmmmm. Baklava are those tasty little crispy bastards, right? I love those. I get everything mixed up. Dima got to the summit and was probably very cold while I was still lumbering on. Not far from the top I decided to face NE and walk backwards to the top to keep my face out of the damn wind. This worked a treat, and I was soon at the top.
An awesome sight. Welcome to the halfway point. We got the hell outta there and aimed for the gully that faces south from the Harwood Baldy Col (pass, notch, saddle, whatever). The winds were so strong in a few places that I had to lean hard into em. Moved north off the crest of the ridge and that cut out most of it. I looked back at the summit and was pleased at how quickly we made it down, knowing that the majority of my trip home was downhill.
We slowly picked our way down the gully which was firm at first but got a bit softer in the middle and further down, and made it to the hut pretty quickly where we ate a little, drank more water, and I grabbed the stuff I stashed and boned out. The hike down was chill, same ol thing everyone has done a billion times. Got back to my bike, unlocked it and pushed it down the trail to the road. Once I got to pavement Dima told me to ride down and we'd meet at the car. I did so and that gave me a headstart in converting from mountaineering mode to bike mode. He showed up, cleaned up, we bid each other farewell, and he drove home. I had a little more packing to do and my front tire had lost some air so I pumped that up. Right around 2300 I began the ride down, being careful of any potentially icy sections of road. This wasn't an issue however as there wasn't enough ice to be of any consequence.
I stopped at the lodge to refill my bottles and chug some water, then headed down to the intersection with Glendora Ridge Road (which I will call simply 'ridge' from now on). There's a climb for less than a mile or so before you hit Cow Canyon Saddle, then it's mostly downhill all the way back to GMR with a couple easy climbs. It was awesome picking a fast line down ridge since it was closed, so I was able to apex blind corners and go pretty fast considering the situation. Clouds started to envelope Baldy, Iron, and the others, starting just below the 8,000ft level. It looked quite strange in the moonlight, making it look as if the peaks were simply much shorter rather than wrapped in big clouds or something.
Made it back to GMR and had a snack at the top at the turnout for Lower Monroe TT. Took my phone off airplane mode so I could get textually assaulted as well as look up where the comet with the confusing designation was in the sky. It's near Capella, but I couldn't see it, most likely due to all the lunar illumination. Frontside was quiet, only a few people out driving, and I felt like I was going fast even though I probably wasn't. Maybe because I was tired and I had all that exercise as a warmup, but it was a wonderful run down the hill, leaning into corners and braking less than usual. The surface was cleaner than usual in a few of the corners as well. Got down, rode to Glendora Ave, took that south, and rode home. Got home at 0200. My totals for the day were 81 miles with 13,000ft of gain, a surprisingly high average speed of 8.3mph, a top speed of 48.6mph (obviously not in the bowl), and a total of about 18 hours. Thanks to Kris pushing fast I got a lot of personal records and second bests on sections of the ride despite my bike weighing maybe 60lbs.
I wanna thank my boys Kris and Dima for coming out and keeping the scene alive. An excellent adventure I'm still recovering from. You should try bikeaneering. It's a great way to experience the mountains, and for me it has made otherwise uninteresting-to-me peaks much more meaningful and adventurous as one must do the entire thing under their own power and plan and train differently. It is a great deal of work and very rewarding.
Arright guys, I'm gonna shut up now and let Dima say his side. His photos are awesome!
