EISPIRATEN

It’s actually been a couple years since I walked anywhere past San Antonio falls and wow I was surprised at the number of people out here. I counted 64 cars parked along the road above and below Icehouse Canyon and it seemed at least that number parked at Manker. I briefly considered going up Register Ridge and changed my mind because the sun was already up and it’s way too hot there. Instead I took the shadier route via the ski hut, noticing that the trail has moved a little since my last visit. It’s still like an old friend, and before I was even tired I was dipping a bottle into the stream above the hut before rushing off to get ahead of a couple slow hikers. I took a real break at the ridge top where I enjoyed most of my Snickers and dried off my outer shirt. A short detour took me to the edge of the bowl, from there I went up the edge and managed to run into a somewhat human-looking path that passed an old camp marked by a lot of rusty cans. This part was great, avoiding the sandy switchback and large crowds is definitely my kind of hiking. Once reaching the summit I was nearly overwhelmed with the noise of 47 people sitting around talking, laughing and mostly yelling at/to each other. I took a quick summit marker photo and retreated down the north side a bit to one of the windbreaks where I could relax and enjoy the special PB&J that I whipped up in the morning. I walked across Mt Harwood on the trip down, it has such a well-defined use trail that people were mistaking it for the Baldy route. I contributed to the local economy with a cheeseburger and lemonade at the Notch and then walked down the fire road to where I parked. Surprisingly there were even more cars in the afternoon both here and at Icehouse. I’m not sure what time one would need to arrive to avoid this many people, although as I’ve said a few times we should be happy that folks are getting out and doing stuff outdoors.
Anyway, it’s about 11 miles and 4100 feet of elevation to go this way, it was summit number 36 for me. Just another great day in the Gabes.

Road walk.
Above the clouds.
Snow flower trying to hide in the rocks.
Part of the re-routing, not allowed to use the old trail. It is washed off a ledge just below this section.
Signage in the rock garden, I assume people were getting lost here?
Old sign and new sign just in case a person can't recognize a trail.
Bowl.
My route up the last half mile - no people!
Summit - lots of people!
Getting away from it all.
Harwood summit prayer flags.
Semi-confusing trail up to Harwood, from here I can see why people take it.
Backbone. Always a great view.
Road walk down.

Nice! It would have been 14 for me.

Here's a "baldy zoo" photo from a few years back:



It almost looks like the conga line at the Hillary Step, right?

Thanks for TR and pics.

I was up there back in 2008...alone! This was a Sunday morning in August at 8am. By the time I left though there were a dozen or so others. I've only been up there 8 times. First time was in 1989 I think.

BTW, is this still up there on Harwood?

...from 2008...

HikeUp wrote: ↑Sat Jun 15, 2024 9:35 pm BTW, is this still up there on Harwood?

It's from SlowestHiker! If she's around, she can tell you all about it.

I don't go to Baldy often. I think I saw one person on register ridge when I took that rout. There is a rout you can take that connects to back bone trail from the north for of Lytle Creek, which I took. I didn't see anyone until back bone, but when went down, I saw two people on bikes and one group. I have a friend who went up some other ridge to the north and apparently he saw no one.

I haven't lived in the LA area for all that long, but I've come to know baldy as a crowded spot that I tend to avoid unless I'm near by and something interrupts my initial plans. I've only done it in the summer, and I when I've done it, I wind up passing maybe ~50-100 people on back bone and see ~50 people at the summit. It sort of feels like a theme park or something. When did it become like this?

I haven't been up for a while, but last time I was there, I ran away to West Baldy to hide from everyone.