Good Friends, Movies, Three Peaks & Bigh orn Sheep

“My son Josh had an interview and tour scheduled for Biola University in La Mirada on Saturday.
I contacted WLD before our trip down to So. Cal. to see if he wanted to do a dayhike on Sunday and...of course he was up for it! He and JDSmiling graciously invited us to spend the night at their house before the hike. After touring the campus on Saturday we headed for WLD's house. We followed his directions right to his house...no problem. So I called him and said...Hey WLD, We Are So lost! He said " Where Are You?" I said just kidding...we're in front of your house...he started laughing and said "well come on in!" We went in and watched the Steelers/Titans game with them. I never knew JDSmiling was such a football fan.
The rest of the evening included Pizza, Pepsi, Popcorn and the movie "Into Thin Air" as well as some dialogue and scenes from Jeremiah Johnson. Is That you on the big screen Pennsy?
We had a late night visitor pass through raiding mom and dad's fridge while WLD was loading his pack after that Josh and I camped in Wld's living room near the fire.

Morning came quickly and we were up getting ourselves ready for the day when Michelle a member of the Outdoor Club arrived to hike with us. We loaded the packs into WLD's truck and headed up the hill to meet Joyce from So.Cal. Hikers group at the visitor's center. We picked up Joyce at the visitors center and headed to the trailhead. It was a beautiful sunny Southern California day!
We left the truck and followed a dirt road for a little while. Along the way we saw San Antonio Falls then started climbing up the hill towards the Ski Hut. Wld had mentiond seeing Bighorn sheep in the area and that is something I've been wanting to see. We stopped at the ski hut and had a snack and noticed the strong winds had leveled the outhouse. We continued up the hill now crossing much more snow sometimes in the shade where the snow was icy and slippery. as the sun continued to rise the snow became softer and our footing more sure. We continued on up passing aircraft wreckage from a couple of crashes in 1949. After making it up to the top of the Baldy Bowl we walked over to look back down on where we have come from.

Now the Mount Baldy summit comes into view, we make our way to the summit and arrive on top of a very windy Mount Baldy, 10,064'.
We took shelter from the wind/cold behind some rocks and ate our lunches. After lunch we headed over to the summit of West Baldy 9'988' took some photos and headed back over Mount Baldy to Mount Harwood, 9,552'. We were supposed to exit via the Devil's Backbone but the trail had eroded to almost nothing and was covered by unsupported snow and ice with a very steep drop on the downhill side. So we back tracked to see if we could go up and bypass this section, Wld went high above the trail only to return shaking his head, saying...."no way, we'll have to turn back and go down the Baldy Bowl". So we back tracked back to Baldy Bowl and started decsending down the scree fields near the center of the bowl.
We scree skied all the way back down to the ski hut where we picked up the trail and continued down towards the trailhead.

We were almost out when we spotted a pair of bighorn sheep! Cool!!!
That was the frosting on the cake as far as I was concerned!
It was pretty dark when we arrived back at the truck. We have had a very full day full of fun and excitement!
Pics are up at Webshots...
Mount Baldy Trip

Thank You JDSmiling and WLD for your hospitality!!!”

“That was fun, well have to do another trip sometime. Pepperdog and OliveOyl, Did you see who was on the screen ????? :)”

“Again, nice trip report and pics.”

“"My son Josh had an interview and tour scheduled for Biola University in La Mirada on Saturday".

Cool...I have one brother that graduated from Biola( ie The Bridal Institute of Los Angeles)...I graduated from Azusa Pacific..and have 2 other brothers attending Azusa right now...either school is great...butof course Azusa is better :)”

“"Biola(ie The Bridal Institute of Los Angeles)"

LOL! I had no idea.”

“Congrats on your first sighting of sheep! My first time was pretty exciting! Big Horns are my favorite!”