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| Backpack | 19.12 Miles |
3,021 AEG |
| | Backpack | 19.12 Miles | 2 Days 3 Hrs | | |
| 3,021 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | It was after the first week when it hit 117 in the valley. My friends wanted to get out of the heat and do a backpack. The Baldy Loop came to mind. We parked at the East TH and started hiking past noon on the Crossover Trail. The West Baldy offers beautiful scenery meandering along the river, with lushness, tranquility, and some sweeping views of huge meadows. Camped at a very good camp site right below the grassy hills on the other side of the river right before you go into the woods again to start the climb. A curious bear came about 100 yards from our camp site on the other side of the meadow and hung around for a minute to check out what we were up to before sauntering off back into the woods. I was bummed about forgetting my MHW Hardshell there on the big sitting log in that camp site the next morning  . It had served me very well in the last few years and hopefully someone found it and will make good use of it 
The next day we had a lazy start and continued on West Baldy on the ascent. There were right around 200 downed logs we had to go over, under, or around the entire loop - a lot more than I remembered 10 months ago. Glad to hear FOTG's report that they had been cut and cleared out of the way very recently. My friend was struggling quite a bit with going uphill with his big pack at those altitudes. So we took our time and went rather slowly. I was encouraged that he and his daughter just buried their heads down and kept going - never complaining and always full of joy and thankfulness to be able to enjoy the beautiful scenery. I always have a weird fondness for the section I call "tree cemetery" right before you get on with the last leg of West Baldy  After coming down from the false summit and passing the airplane crash site on East Baldy, we camped at a campsite near the first scenic lookout. Interestingly, the second night at much higher elevation was a lot warmer than the first night.
The next day we continued down on East Baldy and enjoyed the big views and the cool huge rock formations it had to offer before getting back to the car late morning. When I day hiked the loop, I really wanted to do a backpack here. And I'm glad we did. The White Mountain area never disappoints. |
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Route Editor
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