Mt. San Antonio

I’ve been thinking that any day now, Mt. San Antonio (Baldy) is going to be covered in snow for the rest of the winter and I won’t be able to climb it. I put off attempts lasts weekend (for variations on the obvious reason 🙂 ), and Friday’s rain down in the San Gabriel Valley made me nervous. But the snow it put up high melted off Saturday and I set off for the summit today. My late start was too late for a time of the year when the sun sets at 4:30, and I didn’t make it to the summit. I met several hikers who did, but they had started a 7:00 a.m. I did get up to about 8,000 feet, and I think it was still probably blowing hard and very cool on top, so maybe it was for the best. I get some great views south and west. Several people were apparently heading later than I, including one guy in shorts, who sort of made me wonder if the search and rescue team would get some more Baldy practice out of him later tonight.
The trail starts from the Visitor Center, climbing along a road with some spectacular cabins and real piles of junk along the Bear Canyon Rd. After fifteen minutes, one is on the real trail and after five more one passes the last power line, which goes down to a cluster of Robinson Crusoe cabins seen only from above. The ascent is through dense oaks in the canyon, open chapparal and then very open p-pine and sugar pine at the higher elevations. Wherever it was that I stopped, it took me 2 1/2 hours up and 1 1/2 down. Great views of the ocean, to which my camera failed to do justice: