Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Conditions On Baldy

It's nice that there's one person North of Adelento that's not too good for us So Calers!!!!!

Hey 63Chevy!

The trail is fairly straightforward and, depending on your start time, there will be others gathering in the parking lot that you can follow. Once you park in the lot, start walking up the fire road. Below is a detailed description of the hike from one of guys I hike with. He is leading a Meetup this Saturday on that trail and I copied the info directly from his posting.

His group will be descending via the Devil's Backbone Trail and he estimates the total hike time to be 7-10 hrs. I prefer going down the DBT, but that is best when you have another person with you so that you can leave a car at the bottom of the ski lifts to get back to the Village where you started. Hope this helps.

The trail begins about 100 yards south of the NFS Baldy Visitor Center and behind the church.

To reach the trail head we proceed up a road for about 1/2 mile passing by some extraordinary private homes nestled in this beautiful canyon with a year long stream. Its easy to see why this road was the first to be settled in Baldy area. Once we leave the cabins behind the real hike begins.

I like to see this hike in roughly four parts:

Part 1 is the relatively easy to moderate initial climb out of the village. The first half of this section is shaded with oak and your typical Southern California vegetation as it follows the creek canyon. This section ends (mentally anyway) when you reach the lush open area of the Bear Flat camp site. Note: There is no water past this point.

Part 2 is basically switch-backing up a steep east, south-east mountain slope. The switchbacks are quite numerous, and your goal should be to ascend this section before the morning sun gets to work as the trail is totally exposed here. It's not a particularly pleasant hike at this point.

Part 3 begins as you top the east facing slope and start working up the ridge-line that will take you much of the way towards the summit and into the alpine forest zone. The grade is steep here, and as you progress, quick rest stops are perfectly OK to let your leg muscles stop screaming. The views on this section are actually quite stunning, with vistas of all the surrounding San Gabriel ranges. You will pass through two or three mountain saddles with relatively level ground and some shaded areas on the way, but frankly, its up and up and up for most of this hike.

Section 4 takes you to the summit and here you will transition out of the alpine zone and into a mixed alpine high-altitude environment with lots of ground-up decomposing granite. You will cross a razor back ridge that presents no problems in the summer time and proceed on up to the final push to the summit. Don't be fooled by what seems like your first glimpse of the summit, you are actually viewing West Baldy. As you approach, you will actually be traversing along the slope of West Baldy before beginning the final push to the Mt. Baldy Summit. Keep a sharp eye out for the trail marker and bear right to reach Mt. Baldy proper. You will soon see piles of stones built as wind shelters in the distance as you look towards the summit. That's where you're headed and you'll be there in no time!

The only thing I would add to Hikergirl's accurate description is a little more detail about the beginning, since you asked about finding the trail.

Turn into the church parking lot (don't park there) and follow the road up to a sign that says you can't go any further. Park there and walk up the paved road to where it ends and a wooden "bridge" crosses the stream. Then you're on the trail itself. There are a few places where the trail branches in the first 1/8th mile or so. Just always choose the uphill.

I strongly second her recommendation that you get an early start. The sun on the switchbacks up through the chaparral is no fun at all.

Hikergirl76 & burtw,

Thanks for the info; it's really helpful.

If it were up to me, I'd get started around 5am. Unless I want to hike by myself though, I'm guessing we'll be starting much later.

There were so many people on the Ski Hut trail today (Saturday) that it looked like the MWMT in mid-August. There should have been traffic cops for lane control. But the weather couldn't have been better for hiking - a little cool, slight breeze, really nice.

I ran into Shin and Jeff around 2:30. They were starting up when I was coming down the last stretch. After checking to make sure they knew the way I let them continue.

Someone has cleared away the rocks and tree limbs from the beginning of the register ridge route. Whoever did it did a good job and even cleaned up the "trail" a bit.

Two guys flew off the summit heading down the Bear Flats trail on bikes just as I was getting to the top. If I had gotten there before they took off I might have had a chance to try my Swiss Army Mountain Bike Tire Deflater tool. I don't know if bikes are legal on Baldy or not, but except for the fire road it's no place for bikes. There was a report of 2 guys on bikes on San Gorgonio last week. They are definitely not allowed there.

We were on the summit at the same time. This was a few minutes after those guys left.

Yep. I recognize the 3 of you. Which one are you? I am the old guy who plopped down on the outside of one of the rock piles to eat my lunch.

I'm on the right.

I need to give Bear Ridge another shot in a couple weeks. I had a rough day (really bad leg cramps on the way up).

If the storm dumped any snow on Baldy you can't tell today.

On top with Shin for his 292.

Scully, I Need you and your wife to watch over Kazuko so Your Dad can go to Mexico.

BTW: this is three weekends in a row for Whitney/Baldy.

There wasn't much on the summit yesterday morning (8am), but there was some on the Baldy Trail about a mile from the summit.

When I was up there yesterday, I was surprised that I was all alone.

Uh-oh Richard. Are you upping the bar on yourself? Not satisfied with just Whitney anymore? ;-p .....

Sorry we missed you guys today. We were on the Bear Canyon trail this morning but didn't get to the summit until 1050. Catch you next time.....

-cat b.

A while ago I posted that the start of the Register Ridge trail had been thoroughly blocked by tree limbs and boulders. Then I posted that the blockage had been removed and it even looked like someone had cleaned up the few feet of the route that can be seen from the Ski Hut trail. When I went up last Thursday the route was still open but today (Monday) it is blocked again.Stay tuned for further updates in this epic ongoing struggle!

Must have just happened since it was open and well-marked on Sunday morning.

Someone destroyed the main rock windbreaker at the summit of Mt. Baldy. It made me sick.
We have to rebuild again because we may need it for awhile.

Sh*t!

It was a beautiful day on Baldy yesterday morning. Was windy down below but surprisingly calm on the summit. & being a Friday it was deserted...

Shin took me up Register Ridge. What a butt-buster! I have now discovered another trail up Baldy I dislike. People ask me which trail I like best & my answer is I dislike all of them equally ;-p , but I think now that one more.......

I want to say it was an honor to accompany Shin on his 295th? is that what you said Shin? summit of Baldy. & humbly, this was my 10th....

-cat b.

Got to the summit at 8pm last night and like Shin said made me pissed and sick to see the wind breaks broken apart..Anyway stayed overnight at the partial windbreak, wind blew all night long...32deg when I got there and 29deg. when I left early this morning, turned headlamp off at 5:40 on way down trail..

I got Richard P. Syndrome this morning left my cell phone on summit called ranger station twice but a no go...

BTW: getting dark early sucks..

all in all just another bitchen night at Baldy

mark

[img][img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7129/8156362582_8a4d60ea96_c.jpg[/img]

[img][img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7139/8156420918_6375b80da2_c.jpg[/img]

Nice one....I was up there Tuesday overnight and they hadn't been torn down yet. So goes the cycle on Baldy, something built or blocked soon to be undone and done again...so it goes.

Sorry to hear about the rock shelters. That just doesn't make sense.

Why would someone do that? Like Norma says Makes no sense at all! Those have not only provided much appreciated break from the wind but have been great places to have conversastions with fellow hikers....

Yeti