Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The Opening of Spring Training in SoCal

Thanks everyone for all of the great information!

This is giving me more options. I arrive in San Diego on the afternoon of Friday March 30th. I would travel to my first hiking location on Saturday. I may have two weekends in San Diego and have been trying to decide which hike to do first. I have to base this on a few things.
1. Weather/environment condictions at the time.
2. My stamina fitness level which is low at the moment since it has been 6 months since I did a long hike or a climb over 10,000 ft.
3. The time that it takes for a dayhike if I do not have the equipment for an overnight option.

I have the desire to enjoy some good hikes/climbs but want to ensure I actually enjoy it and don't over do it but at the same time have a challenge. I won't have crampons (maybe some Yaktrax) so less snow in my case is probably good since I am not a true winter climber yet. However if it was safe enough to do I am all up for trying.
I had thought about trying Mt. San Jacinto one of the weekends but trails like the Skyline can take up to 14 hours and you have to be there super early to start the hike (I'd have to leave San Diego close to 3am to get there to start early). I also have San Gorgonio or the 3Ts trail and Icehouse Canyon section options.
Based on the info posted here, the 3Ts trail sounds like a very scenic and nice hike to do.

My question is can this be done in a day? Or is it better to try and camp somewhere? How many hours would the day hike take if I tried for the loop? About 12 hours ?
I saw one person say I'd need 2 vehicles/shuttle and another person say ff you do not arrange a car shuttle, then you will have a 2 mile walk with 1000 feet of gain to get from the Icehouse Canyon parking lot to the Manker Flat parking area. I will only have one vehicle but would not mind the extra 2 miles if I had to.

I am sorry for such a long post message but I want to get as much information that I can on all of my options and it sounds like everyone on this board has a lot of good information about a lot of those area. Again I appreciate the help and advice.

To Lilbitmor... Once I decide which hike to take when I'll email you about the trip and we can see if a particular day/weekend can be planned. Thanks for your hike offer.

Mark

I read Richard's post about the low snow/rain conditions. You are right, does not sound good. I definetly would rather see a normal season even if that met I could not attempt some locations right now because I know in the long run it is best for everything overall. I always enjoy visiting San Diego and the surrounding areas to enjoy nature and the climate. I would not want to see the fire and dry season dangers increase.

I may have answered my own question about the time to do a loop hike. I found this web page trip report that describes one particular tral loop option from Manker Flat, Baldy, Backbone section, Harwood, Thunder, Telegraph, Timber, Canyon area and back to parking area.
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/hps/archives/hps01365.htm

About a 12 hour hike. I would probably estimate up to 14 since I may be slower. Are these estimates about right?

Mark

With my son Matthew coming home from BYU Idaho, I headed out to Mt. Baldy for a little training this morning. At his age, training and ability level...one hike will not be enough to get ready to hike with him.

I slept at Menker Flats. The wind was howling all night. At daybreak I headed up the Register Ridge Route. It was very windy and cold on the lower section....the wind coming over the Baldy notch.

Up higher it is more protected and kind of nice. I moved into the clouds and the ground was mostly covered....2-3 inches of snow which will quickly melt off once the sun comes back out.

At the top of the route I headed up to Mt. Harwood. That is when the full wind arrived. It was so windy I could hardly stand up, and breathing into the wind was very difficult. Mt Water bottle, which I had been carrying was starting to freeze over....oh I wish I had some way to cover my face from the cold wind.

I went to the low spot notch between Mt. Harwood and Mt. Baldy three times. The first time I turned back because the wind was just too crazy (down at the forest service startion, she estimated about 40-60 mph). Once down the backbone trail a few hundred feet the wind died down....so back I went, twice. After three trips to the low spot, I decided the wind was just too much.

It was difficult to be 500 feet from the summit and turn around...three times...but there will be other days.

Overall a fine day up on Mt. Baldy. It was my second time up the Register Ridge Route. In a way it was cool to be in the clouds, heading through a snow covered forest....I kind of wish I had waited another day for the wind to die down.

Oh, one other thing. I saw paw prints in the snow...a large animal....by where the biggest rocks are on the route.....since I was alone, I did lots of growling outloud....to avoid becoming part of the food chain....I never saw the actual animal.

Some pictures @

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/558314052CdsxVZ?vhost=outdoors

Kent, you didn't mention snow gear. Did you take or need any?

Also you took pictures of the three T's, as though a response to this thread. Do you have any option on doing them? Like which direction to go and what to do so you don't need to walk up or down that boring road.

I didn't take any snow gear. With all this talk about the winter being over, I wasn't expecting any snow. The ice that fell off the trees was the most slipery. There was lots of that. The snow wasn't deep enough to cause any problems, one way or the other. With some warmer weather, it will melt off quickly.

Reading this thread has given me a new interest....the three T's. The full loop going up from Icehouse canyon is about 16 miles...and I bet the road is a real pain walking downhill from the Mt. Baldy ski resort parking lot. Going that direction, I wonder if a bike hidden up by the ski resort parking lot isn't the answer.

If you start at the ski resort parking lot, you would probably need to return the way you came.

Anyway, I am not sure. I am beginning to wonder if it would be easier to add Timber Mtn on to a hike to Cucamonga peak......and pick up Thunder Mtn and Telegraph peak from the north on a seperate hike.

Was back up on Mt. Baldy today, three weeks after bad weather turned me around close to the summit. Matthew was back in town so it was nice to have him along. We went up the register route in the dark and came down the Devil's backbone trail
The snow is mostly gone now, with small patches here and there.

The Devil's backbone is a nice scenic route, even though it seems much further.

I was also interested in an alternative from Mt. Baldy notch to the parking lot, without taking the long and windy road.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2523691470061435028Sflajd


It turns out there is a small trail which comes down under the ski lift. Start down the road from the main buildings and pause at the ski lift pole. You will see the start of the trail there.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2762680170061435028ffjeIy

The first 1/3 is soft dirt, kind of nice. You can head down straight or stay on the small trail. The middle third is larger rock scree, not as fun. The bottom third has softer sand again until you get to the wider open area....probably a ski run.

Some pictures of the summit area down the Devil's backbone start here.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2397905860061435028WEQpXw

The car next to me had a ticket, given at 8:17 am. I inquired when I was at the ranger station about tickets. First ticket is $5 , then $30 and then $100. Seems easier to just have an adventure pass, so you don't have to worry about it.

Kashcraft,

In the summer you will see mountain bikers riding (mostly sliding as I recall) down that trail. We saw a guy go straight over the handlebars once. That trail crosses the dirt road at one point.

What was your estimate on the temp on the top? We are considering going tomorrow morning. We are considering parking at the ski lift and taking another alternate route which is directly to the left of the parking lot (as you look up at the notch) and connects with the dirt road. It cuts off a significant amount of the dirt road, but is also farther along then the ski hut trail and you miss the waterfall.

Yesterdays temperature at the Baldy village was 68/48. That would put the high/low up on Mt. Baldy somewhere around 53/30

It was cool & Breezy (with some strong gusts) between Mt. Harwood and Mt. Baldy. We had gloves and face masks and were glad we had them, when the wind picked up.. All the snow we ran into was hard and frozen.

By the time we got back to the car around 9:15 am it had warmed up considerably. So with a latter start it would have been a lot warmer.

We ran into a guy who slept up on the top of Mt. Baldy Wednesday night. I didn't see a tent with him. He said it was "a cold night".


A bike path under the lift...that would be one wild ride, especially on the top where it was steep.

Toward we headed out to do the Three Tee's.... Timber Mtn, Telegraph Peak and Thunder Mtn. Without a car shuttle, this hike is not easy to work out either way, due to the return trip up and down over the peaks. I had never given them much thought until I read this thread.

We choose to hide bikes up by the Baldy Ski Resort Parking lot...off in the trees where they couldn't be seen. That way we could hike one way uphill from Icehouse canyon and ride our bikes back downhill to the car. This turned out really good.

Timber Mtn, Telegraph Peak and Thunder Mtn trail has some nice scenic areas. I really enjoyed it, except for the hike up to Icehouse canyon saddle in the dark. We wanted to be on Timber Mtn as the sun was coming up so we could finish up in the morning. As usual in that area, we saw no one the whole time.

Riding our bikes down from Baldy Parking lot to Icehouse Canyon was the BEST! What a great end to a nice hike. I looked forward to that the whole hike and I was not dissapointed.

Today was a nice and clear day.....We had the usual on and off cold wind...The Baldy Brisk Breeze.

Some Pictures starting here

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2843977450061435028uIFRbv

If you wanted to start and finish at Icehouse Canyon you could drop back to the Telegraph/ Thunder Mtn saddle (after doing Thunder Mtn) and then take the Cedar Canyon all the way down to where it connects with the Chapman trail in the Icehouse Canyon. That would work and bypass going back over Telegraph Peak and Timber Mtn on the return trip....provided you are the cross country no trail type.

I was curious about that picture #64. Just what was that? There are two branches extending into the center from the right side, presumably to hold a tarp or rain cover. And that pile of rocks in the center seems to have an opening on the right side.

Alien or some human design?

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2898986010061435028nVFwrM


Was this hike harder or easier then doing Mt. Baldy, up the regular ski hut route?

Hi Andrew.

That ring of rocks was kind of cool. You are correct about the branches extending over. That center rock pile was hollow and there were left over burnt logs. Someone had a fire in there for sure. There wasn't much space inside the outside ring...maybe enough for 2 people...1 on each side of the center fire ring.

I would guess Baldy plus about 10-20% Overall we hiked about 5000 vertical feet . As expected the Three Tee's hike was about 1 hour longer then our last Mt. Baldy hike.

If you do the Three Tee's from the Baldy ski resort Parking lot and return via the same trail... the total vertical is about 5050 feet. The main hassle is the hike up to the Baldy notch, walking up the road. Using the ski lift up and down to the Baldy Notch would shorten the vertical by 1300 feet and be real nice.

If you do the Three Tee's from Icehouse canyon and return via the trail, the total vertical is about 6070 feet. This could be shortened by cutting down one of the canyons (Cedar canyon or Telegraph Wash)back down to Icehouse canyon. This could shorten the hike by +735 feet going back up over Telegraph peak and +503 feet going back up over Timber Mtn.