Blue Ridge to Mt Baldy via Guffy Campground, Pine Mountain, Dawson Peak, Mt Baldy (Mt San Antonio), West Baldy
date:
8/10/2000
location:
Angeles & San Bernardino NF (Sheep Mountain Widerness), Southern California, USA
type:
Out & Back
distance:
~14 Mi RT. (The hike from Guffy to Pine Mtn to Dawson Peak to Mt Baldy is 12mi RT, but I added a few side hikes on so I went about 14mi.) (Other sources report this as being 15-16mi RT instead of 12mi with more elev. gain, so I don't know for sure. Anyway you look at it this hike is pretty rough. I suggest don't go alone and take pleanty of water, there is no water on the trail; also, be in good shape & used to altitude.)
going up:
Guffy-->top of Pine Mountain: 80 min Top of Pine Mtn-->Mt Baldy: 85min
going back:
Mt Baldy-->bottom of Dawson Peak: 15min bottom of Dawson Pk-->near top of Dawson Pk: 30min bottom of Pine Mtn-->top of Pine Mtn: 30min top of Pine Mtn-->Guffy: 60min
time up:
165 min
time back:
135 min
total time:
300 min
start elev:
8300 ft (Guffy)
Overall elev gain/loss:
1800 ft
Total elev gain/loss:
4550+ ft
Pine Mountain:
9648 ft
Dawson Peak:
9575 ft
Mt Baldy:
10064 ft
West Baldy:
9998 ft
Note:
YEAH!! I hiked up Pine Mtn 25min faster than last time!
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.
hiking route:
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.
details:
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.
trail condition:
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.
THE HIKE: Guffy Campground to Pine Mountain, Dawson Peak, Mt Baldy, & West Baldy in Angeles NF on August 10, 2000
That's me on the top of Pine Mountain with left-part of Dawson Peak, center-Mt Baldy and right-West Baldy in the background
A sign on the ground on the top of Mt Baldy; it is attached to the ground & is thick solid steel.
There's Mt Baden Powell. I think this picture was taken from the Pine-Dawson Saddle.
There's Mt Harwood (bald-left); the trail from the ski resort comes up the side of this which is visible in the original picture.
There's Dawson Peak (right) and Pine Mountain (left) from the top of Mt Baldy.
There's Pine Mtn (right) and Blue Ridge in the background from the top of Mt Baldy.
There's the peaks out toward Cucamonga Peak from the top of Mt Baldy.
This is basically a view from the start of the hike on the trail to Pine Mtn, 2 miles from Guffy Campground. Pine Mtn is the big peak on the left & basically you hike straight up along the ridge pretty much all the way to the top. The whiteish hill in the foreground is basically just a small down-up-down hill on the way to Pine Mtn.
This is a picture of the Dawson-Baldy Saddle area, taken from the side of Dawson Peak. This is where I saw 20+ bighorn sheep cross the ridge and run down the other side & there were 3 bighorn sheep in this picture but I was so far that you can't really make them out.
Here's a close-up of where the bighorn sheep crossed & there are at least 2 bighorn sheep that I was able to make out. The green arrows point at their heads. The one on the right is the easiest to make out.
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