Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board details to get to baldy

the july 29th whitney train stops at baldy on the 17th. though much has been discussed in past threads, I couldn't find any details on how to get to bear flats trail from the freeway.

we're looking for the in-famous "trail past the church" and wonder if someone can be so kind to guide us in from northridge. it's been too long since I've been up there. and if we leave northridge around 4:30 am, about what time would that bring us into the parking area.

finally, can anyone estimate a range of how long it would take a cluster-gang of 5 moderately-skilled trekkers to summit, and then return to parking?

appreciate all help.

I hope what I provide isn't too detailed since I'm not sure if you have ever been too this trail.

To get to the Bear Flat Trail (also know as the Bear Canyon Trail or the Mt. Baldy Trail) is fairly simple. From Northridge you’ll want to take the 101 east to the 134 and then onto highway 210. Exit from the 210 onto Mountain Ave in Upland. Go north towards Mt. Baldy. You’ll go thru Upland and San Antonio Heights. In San Antonio Heights Mountain Ave. will become a two-lane road. Just after becoming a two-lane road the road curves right and then back left. On the north side of San Antonio Heights you’ll come to a Y where Euclid Ave meets Mountain Ave. At the stop sign go left and continue on Mountain Ave. The road will wind thru a burnt out area, past a large debris catch basin and end at Mt. Baldy Rd. Turn right onto Mt. Baldy Rd. and head to Baldy Village.

At Baldy Village the trail you are looking for begins behind the Mt. Baldy Visitor Center. The center will be on your left just past a restaurant that’s on your right. The visitor center doesn’t open until 8:00 a.m. so you’ll have to park in front of it out on the road. The visitor center’s phone number is 909-982-2829. Don’t forget your Forest Adventure Pass since you’ll be parking in a National Forest. You won’t need any permit to hike this trail since you won’t be traveling thru any wilderness areas.

To travel from Northridge to the visitors center I’d guess you should be able to get there in an hour and a half.

As for the trail I’d estimate it will take you and your gang approx 6 to 8 hours round trip. You’ll gain 5744 feet and travel 12.8 miles round trip.

Good luck and have fun.

Hiiker

What you might want to do to save your knees is to exit via the Devil's Backbone through Baldy Notch and take the ski lift down, open weekends only during the non-ski season. This requires you put a car at road's end.

Generally, this is how we do both Ski Hut and Bear Flats Trails. Both these trails are extremely tough on the knees.

Bill

Not to add confusion, but I use the Baseline exit instead of the Mountain Ave exit. I believe it's more direct, at least when you're coming in from the west.

Take the Baseline exit, turn left on Baseline, then the first right on Padua/Monte Vista. Then turn right on Mt. Baldy Road.

I didn't realize that you could walk from the visitor center parking lot; I've always walked past the church, but they're only a few hundred feet apart. If you are arriving that early in the morning, you could probably find a space in the small trailhead parking lot 1/4 mile off Mt. Baldy Rd. Turn off into the church and proceed until you reach a sign that restricts further driving to residents and authorized vehicles. The lot is small and holds 3-4 vehicles. Do not park on church property as they need those spaces for their members especially on Sundays.

If you are backpacking Whitney this is probably more than enough of a workout. If you are day hiking Whitney I strongly recommend a full descent of the trail rather than the ski lift cop out, to condition everything below the waist (if you have knee problems and/or use poles this would a good opportunity to test them!)

I used to do this walk before my earlier Whitney day hikes, timed on the way up, to try to guesstimate how good I was for Whitney.

An incident about 5 Julys ago reminded me that despite its close proximity to the city, this is a big mountain. After I got past Bear Flats just before midday, the weather deteriorated rapidly and thunderstorms began. I knew there was lightning danger at the start of the forest level (6800 feet), so I hunkered down below that elevation and tried to wait the storm out. After about 40 minutes the rain got worse, and I retreated to Bear Flats. Eventually the storm stopped and I went up and made it to 9000'. A couple of hikers coming down said they took off from the summit "running like cartoon characters" when the lightning started. I saw a tree right by the trail where a fresh lightning strike had peeled off a yard-long chunk of bark.

But the mountain can be beautiful, too. A couple of years ago I led a group to the summit in Sept. where we watched the sunset, which was great. But it quickly got chilly after that point.

Yes, Baseline is the shortest exit coming from the west.

Two last bits of advice before tackling the church way to Baldy:

I. Start early, the trail is exposed for the first 4 miles and it gets extremely hot, especially this time of year. There's very little shade.

II. The church way to Baldy is notorious for rattlesnakes. I've never seen one, but I have an acquaintance who is an ultra marathoner and who lives in Baldy. He runs this trail several times a week and he sees rattlesnakes in the brush area about 1.5 miles into the trail. Once you leave the wooded section, you'll come into the steep exposed section where the manzanita starts growing - this is where the snakes hang out, so be observant.

III. Any day by Sunday you can park in the church parking lot, I've done so many times and have never been ticketed, hassled or questioned.

We did this hike yesterday. A few comments:

Driving: From the west, you can take the Towne Ave. exit. Go north to Baseline and take a right. The street to take up is Mills Ave., one light past Indian Hill. It hits the Mt. Baldy Road.

We always start from the Visitor Center. Don't park in the lot there unless you are sure you'll be back before they close the gate (at 4:30, I believe).

The hike starts along the little road just before the Visitor Center. It is the first left turn after the Glendora Ridge Road and is right by the church. Some people "cheat" a bit and park in the turnout just before the "Residents Only" sign.

The 4000' foot elevation sign is just before the road, Visitor Center, etc. The summit is 10064'. So, the hike gains almost exactly 6000' -- it's certainly not a foot short of that! It's very close to 6 miles.

The hike starts in forest. The most hot and exposed (to the sun) portion really starts at Bear Flat, over 1.5 miles into the hike. By 3 miles or so, you're above 7500' and it's considerably cooler, with occasional shade.

I hike with my son, who is too young to participate in car relays, so we like to end up where we start. So, while I understand the need for caution if you have bad knees, a person with good knees can go down this trail with no greater problems than sore legs the next day. My son would deny even those, but he's still young!

I agree that an early start is good.

I agree with AlanK, if you're using this hike to train for Whitney, don't do the car shuttle thing. Hike down the way you came up. It is very hard on the knees, but then, so is Whitney. So just keep it in mind that the descent on Baldy is no walk in the park but it will spare your legs from being quite as sore when you do Whitney, they will have been properly broken in by then.

Candace and Alan K,

Their are no easy ways off this mountain, even via the Ski Lift. The idea is to get ready for Mt. Whitney not to hurt yourself before Mt. Whitney. I find my legs and feet hurt even afer going down the ski slopes to the Notch.

Bill

If you haven't tried already...the North Backbone trail to the top of Baldy is incredible...and very seldom traveled on. If you start from Wrightwood you just take the Acorn Trail to where it intersects the PCT. From there you turn left (or East) until you are directly north of Pine Mt. From there take a small walk across the dirt road (Blue Ridge Rd.) and up Pine Mt. From here you get to bag Pine Mt & Dawson Peak along the way to Baldy. Take extra caution...the trail is extremely exposed...you're on the ridge the entire time. I found this trail to be more challenging than the Ski Hut or the Bear Flat trail and much more scenic.

Leo -- I am intrigued by the northern backbone trail, which has been talked up in this space a number of times. I would definitely like to give it a try soon. It sounds like it's worth the extra drive to Wrightwood.

WB -- I know what you mean. I'm old enough that downhills beat me up a lot more than uphills. I am fortunate enough to have good knees, but I have had a couple of years worth of foot problems that meant that many hard downhill hikes left me in bad shape for days. I am thankful to be through them, at least for now. My legs are sore after hammering up and down the Baldy Village trail yesterday, but that's par for the course any time. People do need to figure out what works for them, and this gets more important with age. My son just looks at me patiently when I talk about aches and pains. If he is sore somewhere before a hike, he always feels much better afterwards. Ah, to be young again!

Leo's right about the North Backbone Trail. This is the hardest day hike I have done in the Angeles, although I haven't done Iron, yet. I've decided if I do this one again I just go over the top and finish at the bottom of the ski lift.

Bill

The Backbone trail from Wrightwood is becoming more and more popular. I've done it twice this summer, both times on weekdays where you wouldn't expect crowds. Yet both times I encountered 6-10 twosomes coming up and another 4-6 pairs of hikers coming down. I was very surprised because in past years you could do this trail and see no one on a weekend. I guess the word is spreading that this is a nice way to do Baldy. It's hard to know where to pick up the trail after Guffy the first time, you might have to ask a ranger or have one of us here give you detailed directions.

I would say that this way is not as difficult as the church way, that's just my opinion. My husband thinks the Wrightwood approach is harder. The Wrightwood approach is more scenic, more shaded and less mentally fatiguing, though there are some dicey sections where there are sheer drop-offs on both sides and some narrow trails in the midst of them. This wouldn't bother anyone who has done the MR, but I wouldn't recommend anyone taking a child on this route or anyone remotely scared of heights or drop offs.

The Wrightwood approach is also not nearly as difficult as Iron Mtn. It's much more scenic and not in the brutal direct sunlight like Iron Mtn. is. Iron Mtn. is a vicious brute!!

Here's a good page which gives driving instructions for the Blue Ridge Wrightwood approach to Baldy:

http://www.desertmud.com/hike_details/EventID/49

Candace -- if you sugar coat your description of Iron Mountain like that, pretty soon everyone and his uncle will be doing it and it'll be as crowded as... the Whitney Trail. :-)

Actually, having done it again a few weeks back, I'd say "vicious brute" is a pretty good description. Yet I keep going back for more.

My only contribution is on the freeway directions given by Hiiker. If indeed you live in Northridge, it would be best to get on the 118 east, then the 210 east, and from there on follow his directions. Northridge is far north of the 101, so there is no sense in going down to the 101.

I have been up Baldy several times on the so-called "Ski Hut Trail." Frankly, that is one of the toughest hikes in So. Cal, in terms of elevation gain in a short distance. The Marion Mountain trail to San Jacinto is a killer (the steepest but shortest (around 7 miles) route to the top; I just did it two weeks ago, for the second time), and the Vivian Creek trail to San Gorgonio is also the shortest (7.8 miles) and steepest to the top. But, having done both of the latter trails, I still say the Ski Hut trail is the hardest, mainly because on the way down you slip and slide over the dirt trail until you reach the ski hut. At my age (43), and being a runner (my orthopedist chuckles at me when I tell him about my running and hiking habit, and says that guys like me keep him in business when our knees fall apart -- he said, keep that up; I'll need another Porsche soon (he was kidding -- I think)). Still, it's one of the best preparation hikes for Whitney. I did Whitney in August 2001, and did Baldy twice, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto (and a couple of other lesser hikes up the Angelus Crest Highway) to prepare. It was my first time up Whitney and the preparation paid off -- I made it, at age 40.

OK, so I had more to offer than freeway directions!

Karl -- The Ski Hut trail gains 4000' in 4 miles. The Baldy Village trail (a.k.a. Village Church Trail, Bear Flats Trail) is more of the same: 6000' in 6 miles. Unlike the Ski Hut trail, some of the lower portion of the Baldy Village trail is pretty exposed to the sun. Generally speaking, if you like the Ski Hut Trail, you'll love the Baldy Village one.

Don't let your orth give you any crap! If your body hasn't crumbled by now, it should be good for the duration. :-)