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Untitled Document
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| Mount San Antonio aka Mount Baldy |
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| by Scott Legal |
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We began talking about doing a loop hike on Mount Waterman way back in April at Oz's surprise 40th birthday party. We didn't set a firm date at that time but John gave me his schedule and Oz said he was available for most weekends in May. Don & Pam weren't available until the last two weekends in May. We finally settled on May 30. Unfortunately Monica's mother passed away and John couldn't make it. Oz and Jolene went camping. So it wound it being my wife and I along with Don and Pam. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it.
One problem - Highway 2 to Mount Waterman was closed. It also turns out that Highway 39 from Azusa to Highway 2 was taken out years ago by a landslide. In this day of digital map technology you would think that my map software would have been aware of this closure, but it wasn't.
Now we're fully committed, but have nowhere to go. I took us back onto to 210 to head east for the 15 to take up to Wrightwood, an improvised plan that none of us were too excited about, but what else are we going to do?
As we approached Upland my wife spotted a sign for the turn off to Mount Baldy and said, "What about Mount Baldy?" Pam seconded the motion and a new plan was hatched in an instant.
The good thing about Mount Baldy is that it is a very quick trip from the 210 to the ski area. We arrived at the ski area and bought a one way ticket up the ski lift. It's a strenuous, nearly 4,000 vertical foot climb from the parking lot to the top of Mount San Antonio (Baldy). Call us wimps, but shaving 1,500 vertical feet off of that climb appealed to all of us.
Quite honestly, the beginning of the hike sucked. We travelled alongside a ski lift on a beat up old dirt road. It wasn't scenic at all. If this lasted much longer I was ready to give it up in favor of a couple pints of some home brewed oatmeal stout that Don brought along for the post hike celebration.
Devil’s Backbone
Just before we hit the top of the lift we had to cross a 30-40 yard snow field. The hike was starting to get interesting. Just after the top of the lift we reached the trailhead for the Devil's Backbone. This is a trail that is very steep at times, travelling up a razor thin ridge line. At one point the sheer drop offs freaked me out. The views were astounding and continued to improve along the way.
A scary part of the Devil’s Backbone
We reached a very steep section as we neared the summit. I had been eyeing this section for a while because it appeared that we would have to cross a fairly steep snow field before reaching the summit. We had crossed a couple snow fields already, but while they were slippery, they weren't steep. Adding steepness to the snow made me wonder how hard it would be to cross the snow. Fortunately the snow was pretty slushy in the midday sun and we didn't slip too much. After passing the snow field we reached the summit and took a well deserved rest.
Linda and Pam crossing the final snow field before reaching the top
There is a side story that had been developing since before we arrived at Mount Baldy. Pam called a friend to ask her about Mount Baldy. This friend said that she and her husband used to use this hike as a training hike for trips to Nepal. Based on that information Pam set out to find out as much as she could about a loop that would have us descend off of the mountain on the Baldy Bowl Trail. As dicey as some of the sections of the Devil's Backbone seemed, they didn't seem nearly as dicey as I was hearing from just about everyone that had been up the Baldy Bowl Trail. Pam didn't hear any of those comments. She just heard that they made it up the Baldy Bowl Trail. And I thought only men have selective hearing. The guy that said that he and his hiking partner had to use crampons alone told me we're not going down the Baldy Bowl Trail!
A view of Mount San Gorgonio and Mount San Jacinto
So down the Baldy Bowl Trail we went. In the first quarter mile we went through more snow than we went through the entire way up the Devil's Backbone. My feet actually got cold. My boots are water proof, but they aren't that well insulated. Because of how slushy the snow had become our boots were sinking a couple inches in the snow with every step. Consequently the wet snow was really cooling my feet off.
We finally left that large snow field in the Baldy Bowl behind us and not a moment too soon. The trail became quite steep. If there was snow on this part it would have been treacherous. We were descending rapidly before hitting a nice flat ridge, a good resting place going up or down.
At the ridge we had a brief challenge with route finding. It actually was made difficult by us. I think everyone was hoping that we didn’t have to go the way we had to go. The trail turns to the north and heads down the steep shady side of that placid ridge. Because the slope was so shady there was lot of snow. Where there wasn’t snow there was mud. Both Linda and Pam did butt plants on the snow. Pam gave up trying to keep from slipping on the snow near the bottom of the slope and just used her butt as a sled. It kind of reminded me of a hike we did a few years back in Matilija when Jolene gave up on trying to stay dry while making one of the many creek crossings. She just went straight through the waste deep creek. Pam’s butt sled track made for a nice smooth and slippery surface for the rest of us to travel over. Thanks Pam!
At the bottom of our steep snowy descent we were faced with a large boulder field. It was clear that at some point in the past a lot of rock from the ridgeline above us had let loose and settled right where we needed to go. Glad it didn’t wait for us. There were also a lot of broken pine branches suggesting that there was a significant avalanche during the winter or early spring. We made our way over the large boulder field and discovered the Sierra Club ski hut that was built over 70 years ago. What an amazing task it must have been to lug all of the materials up to this spot way back in the 1930’s.
After passing the ski hut I started feeling really whipped. We had descended a couple thousand feet already and it was clear that we were nowhere near the bottom. Don, Pam and Linda were all feeling knee pain. So we were all wondering if this route was worth it. On reflection I must say that the trail was beautiful.
We finally made it to the bottom and headed up a dirt road. It’s been a long grueling hike, do I really have to hike uphill again? You really owe me for this, Pam. We had to climb another 400 vertical feet or so before we reached the final steep descent to the parking lot. Since I was the only one whose knees weren’t hurting and I was too tired to slow down, I pretty much raced down the final hill. The walking wounded behind me took a long time to get down. It was worth the wait when Don broke out his special oatmeal stout. It was so good that it made the mosquitoes swarming seem to not matter, well to everyone but Linda at least.
It turns out that there are a lot of geocaches along the route that we took. We didn’t know about any of them. We knew there was one at the very top, but didn’t have coordinates and had no idea where to look. I guess another trip is in order to pick up some of these caches.
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