Mount Baldy

No riding this weekend. I hiked Mount Baldy for the first time. Not like those pussies that rode the ski lift up and then sauntered up the last couple of miles saying "Look at me, I'm hiking". No - Amber and I hiked up Ski Hut trail and then hiked down Devil's Backbone like it's supposed to be done. Anyway $12 for the ski lift is way too expensive.

We started with a four mile, 4000' climb. Probably the hardest four miles of hiking I've ever done. Not only is it very steep, but it's extremely technical most of the way. Some of this hike would qualify as a class one mountain climb. It was cool and we were in fog most of the way but it was pretty awesome. We had some light rain at the start but fortunately it didn't develop into anything. At the ski hut I took my first selfie and we ate some rice bars I had made the previous evening. That's my daughter ninja'ing my selfie.

Mile 2.5 The Hutts at the Ski Hut

From there it's a very strenuous two more miles to the summit where it was cool, foggy, and very windy. There are narrow trails shooting off in all directions so we got lost a couple of time and scrambled over rocks and scree until we found the main trail again. One great thing about a summit climb is that you just have to keep climbing and you're bound to get there eventually! We sheltered in the ring of rocks and ate more rice bars and a PBJ. There's a couple of chipmunks up there that I don't know what they eat. I hear they can live for six months on one dead hiker. I threw one a morsel of PBJ but it didn't seem to realize it was food. Maybe it still had some dead hiker stashed away somewhere.

Mile 4.5 Snacking at the Summit

After twenty minutes or so we headed down on the Devil's Backbone which loops around back to the start in 7.5 miles. As steep descents kill my calves I thought this would be less painful and perhaps a little safer. Descending the technical ascents we had just mastered seemed a bit iffy to me. It turned out the first mile of the Devil's Backbone descent was pretty technical too. The trail is named after a narrow ridge with a steep drop off on either side, but it turned out not to be too bad. You would have to be very careless to get into trouble there - or taking a selfie.

We quickly returned into the clouds and we saw a deer ahead so I took a couple of photographs.

Deer in the Fog

 After the first mile the trail became a fire road and the going got very easy. We were still fairly cold so when we got to the ski lodge at the top of the ski lift we decided to treat ourselves to some hot chocolate. It was really good.
 

Really good hot chocolate

From the ski lodge it is a very easy three miles back to the start of the ride on a wide, smooth fire road. Our total elapsed time was 6:30 with about 5:30 of moving time over a total of 11.8 miles and 4600' of climbing. I would definitely do that hike again - in about a year. On the way down Amber started talking about doing San Gorgonio. Heaven help me!