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| Hiking | 11.30 Miles |
4,300 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.30 Miles | | | |
| 4,300 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a beautiful hike. Doing it on a Monday was a good decision because usually it's pretty crowded. My gps ran out of juice (forgot to put fresh batteries in) somewhere about half way. So the mileage is from most other trip reports and the AEG is a guesstimate (TH at 6,160 and the summit at 10,064 with a net gain of 3,900 - it was pretty much straight up without much ups and downs, so I wouldn't add a lot more on top of the 3,900).
Parked at Manker Flats. Took the road toward San Antonio Falls, which was about 0.6 mile from the TH. The paved road ended there after the hairpin turn and became a dirt road. Shortly after going up on the dirt road, Baldy Bowl trail (with no sign and only a couple of tiny little cairns) veered left and steeper climbing started. I'd read that some people easily missed this trail. As we went up along the east top of the San Antonio Canyon, the Sierra Club Ski Hut came into view every now and then. After about 2.6 miles and 2,000 feet gain, we got to the Ski Hut. It was a nice little resting spot with a few picnic tables. As we were approaching the Ski Hut, the jagged ridge of the bald crown popped into clear view pretty dramatically. We saw the most docile rattle snake ever while eating some food by the Ski Hut as well as a pair of young bighorn sheep. They were very curious and not bothered much by hikers.
From the Ski Hut, we went through a huge boulder field with gentle grade. Then it was some steep climbing through tall pines up onto the ridge. From the ridge, the trail went onto the south face of the Baldy. There were some very steep rocky sections. Don't forget to look back while you're climbing because the views are gorgeous! Vegetation started to thin out and there was no shade. I was grateful that the weather was not too warm. After a couple of false summits, the trail started to level out a bit and led up to the top of the Baldy.
The pano view on the top is gorgeous. We could clearly see San G and San Jacinto out in the distance. We spent a lot of time on the summit soaking in the views and chatting with other hikers. Then we took the Devil's Backbone trail to the east down to the Baldy Notch. The vista views on the backbone itself were grand. The ski lifts were running (stop and go) because some folks were taking them down from the Notch to shave off 1,300 feet and 3.8 miles of road hiking. We talked to some people on the summit who took the lift up to the Notch then hiked up the Devil's Backbone to the summit as well.
I'd definitely want to go back in the winter when the mountain is covered with snow and ice. It will be even a more lovely hike! |
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