Baldy via North Backbone
I have been hiking alone most of the time since 2009. But when a friend wanted to come along for the hike to Mt. Baldy via the North Backbone Trail, I decided to give this a try (and venture beyond Pine Mountain where I stopped twice before). To make it easier, we began the hike at the starting point of the North Backbone Trail, where it intersects the Blue Ridge Truck Trail (and PCT) above Wrightwood. This cuts 3.5 miles each way plus 2,000 feet of climbing versus hiking from the City of Wrightwood. The cost is that you have to drive for about seven miles on a dirt road. I have an SUV with good ground clearance but no 4WD. We actually stopped about 0.2 miles short of the trailhead, because we could not pass an uphill and uneven section. Thankfully, we found a small area next to the narrow fire road to park the car.
For stats, the entire hike, done this way, is only about 7 miles with 4,700 feet of elevation gain. This seems just a tad harder than the most popular route to Baldy via Mankers Flat and the Ski Hut, which is 8.4 miles and 3,800 feet of elevation gain. However, on this hike you never dip below 8,200 feet, so all the climbing is done at a higher altitude. That's why it will feel a lot harder.
This is the uphill section that we could not get across on the fire road. If you have 4WD, you need it even in the summer.
Before I go on to describe the hike, it is very important to remember to bring enough water. We brought four liters per person on a very pleasant sunny day with temperature in the 60s and 70s, and it was still not enough and had bad consequences which I will explain later. We should have brought five liters just to be safe.
Since I already described in another page the first part of this hike where Pine Mountain is climbed, I will skip it. The steep and loose section, of course, is still there.
There are two or three places like this when climbing Pine Mountain. It does not matter what you call it (class 2 or class 3). It is fairly easy if you set aside your hiking poles and just use your hands.
The next part of the hike descends Pine Mountain and skirts to the top of Dawson Peak. This section is the most gentle part of the hike because the elevation changes are relatively mild. The descent is about 500 feet and the ascent is about 400 feet. As you near the top, go off trail to the left for about 100 yards to get to the Dawson summit.
Looking out at Dawson Peak from Pine Mountain
Looking back at Pine from half way up Dawson. Even though it does not look like much, re-climbing Pine on the return leg can be demoralizing.
View of Baldy from the summit of Dawson. A faint trail going up the mountain can be made out if you look carefully.
We then descended 750 feet into a saddle between Dawson and Baldy. At this point, I assessed the amount of water remaining against the remaining amount of climbing we still needed to complete. First, we would ascend 1,250 feet in about 0.7 miles - very steep (perhaps not as steep as the loose section on Pine Mountain) and sustained climbing - to the top of Baldy. Then, we must climb both Dawson and Pine, again. I thought we did not have enough and was ready to turn back, but my friend wanted to go on, so we did.
Looking back at Dawson and Pine from three quarters of the way up Baldy.
Our bonus for continuing the hike was seeing two bighorn sheep near the top of Baldy.
After that extended highlight of the day, the hard part was to hike back. It turned out that my friend's legs already started to cramp on the climb to Baldy because he tried to conserve water by not drinking much. He had to stop and rest his legs every ten minutes or so for the next two hours, until the cramps went away. Re-climbing the two mountains did not help at all. The most important takeaway of the hike? Bring enough water. It is the difference between a great hike and a total disaster, and our day ended up just a hair on the side of a great hike.