| |
| Mt Wrightson and Mt Ian via Old Baldy TH, AZ | |
|
| | Mt Wrightson and Mt Ian via Old Baldy TH, AZ | | | |
|
|
Mt Wrightson and Mt Ian via Old Baldy TH, AZ
| | |
|
| Hiking | 14.05 Miles |
4,451 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.05 Miles | 8 Hrs 48 Mns | | 2.11 mph |
| 4,451 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 9 Mns Break | | | |
|
|
| |
| Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | We hiked to Wrightson in 2021, so the main destination today was Mt. Ian to check out one of the nearby peaks. It was comfortably in the 60s when we started up Old Baldy, and the trails were pretty quiet. Early wildlife included a lot of acorn woodpeckers hanging out near the bathrooms at the parking lot and a deer in the first mile or two. It felt like we were ascending into early fall up higher on Old Baldy past Josephine Saddle--lots of beautiful yellow leaves.
After the barrage of switchbacks leading up to Baldy Saddle, TBoneKathy waited while I did a quick out-and-back up to Wrightson. It was a lot quieter up there than it was in the summer of 2021 on my last visit, but there was still a group of four sitting up there and more people coming up behind me, so I just took some quick pictures, signed the register, and started back down. With the amount of traffic on Wrightson, the peak really goes through summit registers...the one I signed was a few days old and was already on page #2.
Next up was Ian, and we hiked Crest Trail for ~ half a mile before turning off to the peak. The guide for Ian really oversold the difficulty of the off-trail portion...at first glance, it reads like a half-mile bushwhack, but the peak is only a few hundred feet off the trail, with ~50 feet of elevation gain and a simple scramble up to the top. The peak had quite a few ladybugs, but far from Mazatzal-level quantities. The views of Wrightson and Hopkins were nice, as was the solitude, and we could see specs of hikers up on Wrightson.
[ youtube video ]
I'd brought an empty jar and some paper in case there wasn't already a summit register on Ian. Of course, after initially failing to find one and placing the new one, I found an old register in a well-hidden peanut butter jar. It was a small notebook placed in 2013, with some familiar HAZ names, including those the most recent Ian triplogs from Jim_H and DixieFlyer. The notebook was wrapped in plastic and the lid was on tight, but the notebook was still soggy, so I ended up leaving the new jar up there as well...it's now a two-register summit.
We headed back down to Baldy Saddle, through the switchbacks to Josephine Saddle and decided to take Super Trail back to the parking area. That added about a mile and a half over Old Baldy but offered some new scenery. Overall, a really pleasant day with great weather, some early fall color, and less busy trails than our last visit, probably due to being here in October instead of June. |
  |
Bellows Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Steady drip out of the pipe at the spring box | | | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 