Baldy Trip Report: 6.21.03

Greg Walker
Andrew Yue

This trip idea originated from reading websites and various hiking books as one of Southern California's best hikes.  Old Baldy, 
aka Mount San Antonio is Southern California’s 3rd highest peak standing at 10,034 feet.

The trip started off around 7am departing from my grandmother’s place in Hacienda Heights.  A short drive to Ontario during a 
full June “gloom” we headed up into the San Bernardino mountains not even being able to see the mountain.  As we climbed into 
the cloudy sky in Greg’s new VW Golf, we soon found visibility to be less than 30 feet or so.  The windy road climbed and 
climbed as we soon reached the Ranger station in the Baldy Village around 8am.  Around 45 min later we reached the Manker 
Flats campground and hit the trail.

The first section of 3.6 miles up to the top of the ski lift was a lot more difficult than anticipated.  Though the trail was easy, the 
climb was tough going uphill all the way as we went from XXX feet to XXX feet.

Taking a brief break on top by the top of the lift, we continued on up towards Devil’s Notch.  This next section of trail was very 
strenuous and steep as we slowly trodded along – not being used to the high altitude.

Devil’s Notch was a cool experience as we careful hiked noting the very interesting views.  The last stretch up to the top was 
again tiring as we neared the 10,000 foot level.  The summit provided great (but hazy) views.  LA and the ocean to the west was 
clouded over around 6000 feet.  We could see Jacinto to the east and most of the Bernardino range all the way to Mount Wilson.

We hiked the steeper and shorter trail down.  It provided some really nice views of the valley with some pretty overlooks.  We 
arrived back at the car around 4pm.  Oops, forgot to mention the crazy guy, his wife, and baby kid on-back running down a scree 
slope that the work bushwhacking does no justice.

Total distance:  3.6 + 3.2 + 4.1 + 0.9

Elevation gain/loss:  4000 feet