Special Instructions
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NF Adventure Pass Req'd
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: Hiking |
Last
Updated on 08/10/2000 |
| RATINGS |
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Blue Ridge to Mount Baldy
Pine Mountain, Dawson Peak, Mt Baldy, West Baldy |
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Location: San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest, Southern California
Region: Mount Baldy Region
Wilderness: Sheep Mountain Wilderness
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Total Distance:
14 Mi
Elevation Gain: 4,550 Ft
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Season: April-Nov
Type: Out & Back |
Start Elev: 8,300 Ft
Peak Elev: 10,064 Ft
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Total
Time: 5 hr
Time In: 2.75 hr
Time Out: 2.25 hr
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Peak List |
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Peak
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Elevation |
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Mount San Antonio |
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10,064 Ft |
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West Baldy |
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9,998 Ft |
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Dawson Peak |
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9,575 Ft |
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Pine Mountain |
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9,648 Ft |
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| Driving Directions |
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From I-15, Take Hwy 138 to Hwy 2 go past the town of Wrightwood a little ways to Blue Ridge Rd on your left (on the right is a large PCT parking area), take Blue Ridge Rd 6 miles to Guffy Campground and park there. The road is still closed past Guffy. |
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| Route |
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Hike PCT at the far end of the campground down a hill to the road and take the fairly level road 2 miles (about 30 minutes) to the Pine Mtn Trailhead. Or take PCT there, whatever you want. I think the road is easier and more direct. The trail drops maybe 100ft at first then climbs up a little ways then drops again and back up and up and up. |
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| Details |
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I did this hike alone because I had no one to go with. The trail to Pine Mtn is pretty dang steep. At Pine Mtn, you drop down about 500ft and then head up to the side of Dawson Peak which is a nice easy grade. At the high point on the side of Dawson Peak, you head down to 8800ft and you better do your best to enjoy this. As I was going down toward the "Dawson-Baldy Saddle" area I saw from a distance what looked like a deer very briefly. Then I'm like that was pretty cool, so I keep on walking down the trail and I see this pack of 20-30 bighorn sheep, big and little, and they all took off down the side of the mountain & that was pretty awesome. So then I arrive at the last uphill section to Mt Baldy and it's as steep as the climb up Pine Mountain was, but I still had pleanty of energy so it was no problem. Then I'm at the top of Mt Baldy and I had to walk over to West Baldy which is maybe 1/2 mile each way. Back at Mt Baldy and there's these two guys up there now from Sweeden who work for Swiss Air and had a day off so they hiked Mt Baldy, but they took the chicken sh*t way from the ski resort. I spent about an hour on the top mostly looking for a sign-in can which I never found (and the walk to West Baldy), then I headed back. The climb back up Dawson Peak was a lot harder than it was coming down chasing the bighorn sheep and the temp was a lot higher, it felt like 105F but it was probably in the upper 80s - low 90s. When I got back up on the side of Dawson Peak, I hiked up to near the peak, there wasn't much up there so I didn't go all the way, and then got back on the trail and headed back through the nice mellow downhill to the base of Pine Mtn & that was another hot climb but easier and shorter than the one back up Dawson Peak. Back at the top of Pine Mtn, I signed in again and headed down the steep grade back to the road and back to Guffy. I ran out of water (I started with ~100oz) about a mile from Guffy, but I had some in my truck. Peeled out of there and dusted some forest rangers who were playing with the toilets and stopped at Burger King in Phelan.
Other notes: there were more bighorn sheep prints on the trail than human prints; my prints from 5 days ago were still visible; after Mt Baldy on my way back up Dawson Peak, a stupid helicopter kept landing on top of Mt Baldy every 15 minutes or so. |
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| Trail Condition |
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There are three very short rocky sections maybe halfway up Pine Mtn, where the trail really isn't a trail, that a dog would probably have trouble making it up. At the Pine-Dawson saddle, there are low thorny bushes (mountain whitehorn) growing over the trail leaving a maybe 3-4 inch path to walk through, I didn't see any snakes or ticks here. |
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