Friday, April 23, 2010

Mt. Baldy Hike

While you are young,
While you have time,
While you have energy,
When you have the opportunity, try it!
even if it's not for you,
the important thing is you are trying.

We planned this hike within a week and we really didn't know what to expect but a 7 hour strenuous hike to the top of Mt. Baldy through a trail called "Devil's Backbone".  Anyway, we had a few drinks the night before and planned on going home early to get some rest and also get our stuff ready for the hike the next day. But did it happen? lol.. Nope, we ended up coming home around 1:30am. The first thing I did was emptied my Camelback and packed it with some warm clothing, first aid kit, knife, survival kit, warming blanket, and water proof matches. I also went online and searched for Topographical maps of the San Bernardino Mountains. The maps I found were a little bit blurry but it's better than nothing right? haha. Then I looked at the clock and it was already 3:30am.. I needed to get up in a few hours. I setup my alarm at 6:30am so we can be on the road by 8am.

Sunday - April 18, 2010
- My alarm went off at 6:30am but just like any other day, I hit the snooze button. Finally got up around 7am.
- Called everyone to make sure they were awake and ready to go. Their phone rang a few times before they picked up. Except for Vera! WOW!!! 
- I took a shower and got ready within 15 minutes. It was around 7:30.
- I double checked my stuff and checked the weather report and said that it was going to be in the 30s and low 50s
- Around 7:40, I received a call from Richard asking if we had already left. If not, he will be joining us.
- First person to arrive was the last person I expected to show up... guess who?.... Vera! Wow... again.. haha... 
- A few minutes later, everyone arrived at my house and ready to go.
- We ate breakfast at Jack and the Box.. We wasted a good hour eating at this place I think.
- After that, we headed to 7eleven to get our snacks, water, etc.
- Finally on our way to the mountains. I think it was 50miles away from Burbank. 
- After 40 minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the Visitor's center to purchase our mountain adventure pass. 
- Here's where the bad news came... The ranger had informed us that we are not allowed to go up to the top of Mt. Baldy unless we have crampons and ice picks. The Devil's Backbone trail is the size of a regular table and if it's full if ice, it is going to be slippery and dangerous!!! Luckily, there were alternate routes we could take to get to the 2nd highest peak, which is the Ski lodge/restaurant. I think it was a 4 mile hike one way with an elevation gain of almost 2000 ft. from Mankers flat (the parking area).
- Since we were already there, we might as well make the best of it and go wherever we can go.
- We finally arrived at the parking lot at Mankers Flat.
- We grabbed our gears and started hiking towards San Antonio Falls
- After a few minutes of walking, we arrived at the falls and took pictures. My socks got wet but oh well, that's expected going to places with water. 
- After taking a few pics, we started our journey to the top. There were snow patches on the trail but we were determined to get to the top.. haha. "If there's a will, there's a way!"
- After hiking up for 5 minutes, "some" of us needed to take a break since "some" of us are not used to hiking. lol. I'm not pointing fingers...i'm just saying. 
- I think we took close to 10 snack breaks before we reached the Ski lodge. (We could have taken the ski lift going up to the lodge but we were there for the exercise and the experience so why take it right?)
- After a couple of hours hiking up, we finally reached the top.. by this time, all of us had taken the extra layers of clothing we had earlier. I was wearing shorts and a tank top. 
- Here's the funny part, we couldn't find the exact trail to get to the lodge so we made our own trail. We ended up at the slopes where people were snowboarding, skiing, and tubing. Everyone of them were wearing jackets, gloves, ear muffs/beanie and we were wearing tank tops and shorts. hahaha.. Only in California!!!
- We finally sat down at the restaurant and ordered our food. The price of food was expensive!!! I think a can of coke was $3! and a burger was $12.. Oh well, we needed to fuel our body to go back down.
- We got there just in time to see the last few minutes of the Lakers game. They won! yey!
- Then we took our time eating and by the time we finished, it was already 4pm. So we decided to head back down. 
- We took a different trail on the way down. The trail was very steep and slippery but it saved us a lot of time. It must have saved us at least 30 minutes of walking. 
- After an hour and a half of walking (maybe more), we finally reached the bottom and headed home. 

The hike was definitely fun! It's nice going with a bunch of people because it makes a difficult hike easier because everyone is having fun. My goal for 2010 is to hike as many mountains as possible. In June, we are going back to Yosemite but this time we are hiking the half-dome. No excuses!.. That hike should give us enough practice to hike Mt. Whitney in October. I also plan on doing a few local hikes in the San Gabriel Mountain within the next few weeks if my schedule permits.



Click the album below to see the rest of the pictures


Mt Baldy Hike

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