Saturday, September 24, 2016

Mt Baldy Loop

Hiking Date: September 24, 2016
Location: San Gabriel Wilderness, CA
Difficulty: Hard
Distance: 11.3 miles (loop)
Hours hiked: 6
Goal: To hike the entire Mt. Baldy loop in 12 hours
Goal completed: Yes

Mt. Baldy loop is a well known hiking trail for those seeking a challenge. The hike is not that hard and you also reach one of the highest summits in Southern California. Although it is a ways away from the nearest urban city, Upland, at the end of the hike, you will think it was worth it. 

As we were driving up the mountain, we looked at the packed Icehouse Canyon parking lot. But as we parked at our hike parking lot, I think this broke the record...


From there, we hiked up the half mile road to San Anotinio Falls


But then we heard a siren.

At first we thought it was going somewhere else, so we went on. But then we heard the siren again, only it seemed to be getting louder. In fact, an ambulance was hurtling toward us! We moved out of the way, and it rushed up the service road. When we came walking up the service road, we saw a big group of people crowded over a man. 

He had a heart attack.

The medics were performing CPR on the man and he had a mouth mask over his mouth and nose (like the kind they use on you when you are having a major surgery). It was scary. So for those of you that pray, please pray for this man.

Back to the hike, we cut off the the service road and hiked up and onto one of the faces of the "Baldy Bowl".
The Baldy Bowl
The hike was a lot like Vivian, Here is a typical view of the hike


After reaching the Sierra Club Ski Hut in 2 miles, we started to climb out of the canyon. At this point, we were very close to the Baldy Bowl.


From there, we crossed over and switch backed up through some pine trees. I was going pretty fast. In fact, I left mom and Papa behind and passed a couple forest rangers! After reaching the top of the ridge, we crossed over again at the top of  Baldy Bowl and climbed another 30 min. and we reached the summit!!



After the summit, we headed down the south side of the mountain, made our way onto the east arm of Mt. Baldy, and started descending Devil's Backbone.


If you want to hike this part of the trail, first, see this.


When we got to The Top Of Notch restaurant,  we got to go down the nice chairlift



OK, I need a break of typing, see you later, logging off. 

1 comment:

  1. What a great description of your super Mt. Baldy hike! I especially found it interesting how many people were at the top all at the same time.
    Nana

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