Mt. Baldy Hiking

Last weekend, Josh and I headed up to Ventura for shopping (the surf wasn't good and later we found out there was a tornado warning...oops). He somehow ended up with all new Patagonia rain gear from the weekend sale. Saturday, we ran part of Mt. Wilson. Josh had a weird ankle pain so he turned around while I went up to Orchard Camp. It was snowy, cold and beautiful. It felt really really good to be on a real trail run again. Yay! Flying down singletrack is awesome.

On Monday, I didn't have work due to President's Day, so Josh and I headed up Mt. Baldy. We drove up early (left Josh's house before 6am) to avoid the holiday crowds at the ski resort. Fortunately, when we got there, it was pretty empty and we had no problem at all finding a parking spot. The only people we saw we also hiking up one of the nearby trails. After we spent three hours walking PAST the trail head, then played around glissading and self arresting on random slopes on the mountain, we got to the start of the planned hike.

Self arrest practice was actually pretty super fun. I had a hard time convincing myself to slide on my back headfirst down the mountain to practice self arrest from that position. I gave up on that one. Josh ended up liking crampons and ice axe use too.

Finally, we headed up the Ski Hut Trail (I think its really called the Baldy Bowl Trail). By that time it was getting pretty late, but we wanted to go up anyway. The trees were totally covered in ice, but the sun was melting it, so the whole mountain seemed to be dripping/falling. The snow near the trail was pretty good though, unlike Manker Canyon, where we started hiking early. The avalanche danger was not acceptable there, so we moved on to the Ski Hut Trail. Josh got his hydration from eating icicles. As we got to the hut, a crazy cloud/fog descended on us and visibility dropped fast.

We were pretty much there, so we decided to turn around. Now that I look back on it, we probably should have kept going, but I am trying REALLY hard to practice good judgement, like, before things get sketchy. At least to have that ability if I choose to use it.

The hike back down was really nice, although the weather was getting a little warm for our taste. The views of the mountains surrounding Baldy in the winter are quite a bit different from the summer, and we stopped every so often to check it out.

When we got back down, the world had totally changed. The parking area was completely, utterly packed. Cars were parked all the way down the road and the way up was a stopped, exhausted filled traffic jam. People were EVERYWHERE...skiing, tubing, sledding, making snowmen. The contrast from the morning was unbelievable. We were going to stop at the car and make some food, but instead we just jumped in the car to drive out of there. We got out of the parking area as fast as we could and made our way back to Josh's house. Wow, what a difference. The snow was melting by then and the road we had hiked up was pavement instead of ice/snow. Good thing we got there early!

In other news, I told JPL on Monday I was for sure taking off the month of March to do wilderness EMT training. Although really, I just need a break and I miss home and I miss winter. This way, I can get some of both, plus learn something useful. Then I also made Monday my last day, on the same day. Ironically, Josh found out he had an interview at JPL about 15 minutes after I handed in my leave of absence paperwork. So, I'm here at home in New England! We are making the most of it. Dad, Mom, and I drove out to visit Derek, and catch some waves!!!

We got some fun rights and Derek somehow found all of the barrels.

Enjoying a long ride...

Afterward, we had some pretty awesome sandwiches before going on a walk on the beach. Sometimes, its just hard to walk away from the ocean.