Just another Baldy loop hike, 22 Nov 2008
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:50 am
I finally got my ass back up on Baldy again this weekend (I haven't been up there since June). This time I decided to try the loop up the Baldy Bowl Trail and down the Devil's Backbone Trail to the chair lift. I hand drew a GPS route and uploaded it as a Google Earth .KMZ file.
I got started at 6:30 and almost immediately ran into Cheryl at the trail register just above the road. I met her the last time I was on Baldy, in June. I seem to meet someone I know every time I go up there. We agreed that while we don't mind hiking with other people, we usually prefer arranging solo hikes because it's such a pain in the ass getting people to meet in one place at one time, especially if it is early in the morning. We hiked together to the Ski Hut, arriving just before 8:00.
Someone has been decorating the trees around the Ski Hut and the summit with Christmas ornaments:
Is this traditional? Unless someone comes back before the winter to remove the decorations, they will be blown by winter storms all over the canyons.
Above the Ski Hut I found it hard going along the steep parts of the ridge. I haven't been in the mountains in over a month and I spent the summer drinking too much beer and not getting enough conditioning hikes in. I was really out of shape. In June I skipped up the trail like a bunny, but this time I staggered along slowly and had to stop every few paces. I decided I'll have to come back for another hike this next weekend.
It was supposed to be a high of 50 degrees, so I wore a wool shirt, which proved to be a bit warm for the hike up, but was welcome later when the wind kicked up on the Devil's Backbone Trail. There was a strange high cloudy haze in the sky that wasn't so nice for photography, but was more pleasant for hiking than direct sunlight. It was a good day for a hike.
I remembered a few weeks ago Dudley reported on the USMC Hellcats crash site a thousand feet below the summit. Patrick was wondering where it was and several people provided directions and maps. So I had some idea of where the crash site was when I sat down for a rest high on the summit ridge. I looked downslope from the trail and pretty soon I could see pieces of wreckage:
So the crash site is clearly visible from the trail itself. Anyone who wants to find it just needs to stop at the trail sign and then turn and look downslope a little to the right.
Cheryl had left the Ski Hut before me and was on the summit long before I got there. As I came near the top, she appeared and said she saw six bighorn sheep heading from the summit over to West Baldy. I headed up and looked over and sure enough most of them re-appeared, though they were moving away from us:
Now in 30 years of hiking in Southern California mountains, I have never before seen a bighorn. When I was younger they were said to be extremely rare and shy, and it was a very lucky person indeed who ever got to see one.
These days, however, I am hearing about bighorn sightings almost weekly. I think either the sheep population has gotten much larger, or the animals are much less shy, as sheep sightings don't seem to be at all rare these days.
So this was my first encounter with bighorns in the wild.
I got to the top about 9:45 and gobbled down my breakfast of crackers, hummus and salami so fast I felt a little ill afterward. But I was ravenous, and really tired, completely out of shape. Cheryl left the summit as I arrived, and for a few minutes it was just myself and one other guy up there, but soon a few more people appeared. By the time I started down about 10:20 there were about half a dozen folks on the top.
There was very little wind at the top. Most of us were a bit chilled from the sweat of the ascent, but it didn't really get cold until I started down the Devil's Backbone trail.
I haven't been down the Devil's Backbone Trail in about ten years or so, and don't remember much from the last trip. For 30 years John Robinson has been calling it the quickest and easiest way to the top (assuming you take the chairlift). This seems to be terrible advice. Compared to the Baldy Bowl Trail (which I hate hiking down, which was why I was trying to find an alternative descent), the Devil's Backbone is steep, unstable and treacherous, if shorter, though it is very scenic. I had to move very slowly down the steeper parts of the trail, and slipped once on the loose gravel.
Of course, I met quite a few people coming up the trail as I descended, most of them, no doubt, with copies of Trails of the Angeles in their packs.
There is quite a bit of interesting scenery around Mt Hardwood, including a sheltered camping spot where Fritz and Taco stayed last year and a web of game trails on the north face of the mountain:
The trail itself is interesting to look at, as it negotiates the jagged knife edge of rocky ridges:
I started seeing a lot of footings and stumps of steel posts that have obviously been cut away at some point in the past. Was there ever a chain installed along the Backbone? What were those steel posts for?
My feet hurt rather badly by the time I was halfway to the chair lift, partly because I had forgotten to trim my large toenails, so I made very slow progress down. I couldn't believe how steep some of the slopes were, on this, Robinson's "easiest way to the top." I still much prefer the Baldy Bowl Trail. I was grateful to be able to buy a Coke in the upper lift lodge, as for some reason I was craving a sweet drink, which I normally don't care for.
Except for my aching feet, I felt pretty good as I approached my car near the start of the San Antonio Falls road, at about 1:30. I need to get a few more high elevation hikes in before the winter gets here.
Moar photos.
I got started at 6:30 and almost immediately ran into Cheryl at the trail register just above the road. I met her the last time I was on Baldy, in June. I seem to meet someone I know every time I go up there. We agreed that while we don't mind hiking with other people, we usually prefer arranging solo hikes because it's such a pain in the ass getting people to meet in one place at one time, especially if it is early in the morning. We hiked together to the Ski Hut, arriving just before 8:00.
Someone has been decorating the trees around the Ski Hut and the summit with Christmas ornaments:
Is this traditional? Unless someone comes back before the winter to remove the decorations, they will be blown by winter storms all over the canyons.
Above the Ski Hut I found it hard going along the steep parts of the ridge. I haven't been in the mountains in over a month and I spent the summer drinking too much beer and not getting enough conditioning hikes in. I was really out of shape. In June I skipped up the trail like a bunny, but this time I staggered along slowly and had to stop every few paces. I decided I'll have to come back for another hike this next weekend.
It was supposed to be a high of 50 degrees, so I wore a wool shirt, which proved to be a bit warm for the hike up, but was welcome later when the wind kicked up on the Devil's Backbone Trail. There was a strange high cloudy haze in the sky that wasn't so nice for photography, but was more pleasant for hiking than direct sunlight. It was a good day for a hike.
I remembered a few weeks ago Dudley reported on the USMC Hellcats crash site a thousand feet below the summit. Patrick was wondering where it was and several people provided directions and maps. So I had some idea of where the crash site was when I sat down for a rest high on the summit ridge. I looked downslope from the trail and pretty soon I could see pieces of wreckage:
So the crash site is clearly visible from the trail itself. Anyone who wants to find it just needs to stop at the trail sign and then turn and look downslope a little to the right.
Cheryl had left the Ski Hut before me and was on the summit long before I got there. As I came near the top, she appeared and said she saw six bighorn sheep heading from the summit over to West Baldy. I headed up and looked over and sure enough most of them re-appeared, though they were moving away from us:
Now in 30 years of hiking in Southern California mountains, I have never before seen a bighorn. When I was younger they were said to be extremely rare and shy, and it was a very lucky person indeed who ever got to see one.
These days, however, I am hearing about bighorn sightings almost weekly. I think either the sheep population has gotten much larger, or the animals are much less shy, as sheep sightings don't seem to be at all rare these days.
So this was my first encounter with bighorns in the wild.
I got to the top about 9:45 and gobbled down my breakfast of crackers, hummus and salami so fast I felt a little ill afterward. But I was ravenous, and really tired, completely out of shape. Cheryl left the summit as I arrived, and for a few minutes it was just myself and one other guy up there, but soon a few more people appeared. By the time I started down about 10:20 there were about half a dozen folks on the top.
There was very little wind at the top. Most of us were a bit chilled from the sweat of the ascent, but it didn't really get cold until I started down the Devil's Backbone trail.
I haven't been down the Devil's Backbone Trail in about ten years or so, and don't remember much from the last trip. For 30 years John Robinson has been calling it the quickest and easiest way to the top (assuming you take the chairlift). This seems to be terrible advice. Compared to the Baldy Bowl Trail (which I hate hiking down, which was why I was trying to find an alternative descent), the Devil's Backbone is steep, unstable and treacherous, if shorter, though it is very scenic. I had to move very slowly down the steeper parts of the trail, and slipped once on the loose gravel.
Of course, I met quite a few people coming up the trail as I descended, most of them, no doubt, with copies of Trails of the Angeles in their packs.
There is quite a bit of interesting scenery around Mt Hardwood, including a sheltered camping spot where Fritz and Taco stayed last year and a web of game trails on the north face of the mountain:
The trail itself is interesting to look at, as it negotiates the jagged knife edge of rocky ridges:
I started seeing a lot of footings and stumps of steel posts that have obviously been cut away at some point in the past. Was there ever a chain installed along the Backbone? What were those steel posts for?
My feet hurt rather badly by the time I was halfway to the chair lift, partly because I had forgotten to trim my large toenails, so I made very slow progress down. I couldn't believe how steep some of the slopes were, on this, Robinson's "easiest way to the top." I still much prefer the Baldy Bowl Trail. I was grateful to be able to buy a Coke in the upper lift lodge, as for some reason I was craving a sweet drink, which I normally don't care for.
Except for my aching feet, I felt pretty good as I approached my car near the start of the San Antonio Falls road, at about 1:30. I need to get a few more high elevation hikes in before the winter gets here.
Moar photos.
BUT JUST FOR THE FIRST TIME, JUST ONCE, START WAY BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP. AND ABOVE ALL, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO......... GO ALONE!!! 
