Backcountry hiking Mt. Baldy?

[John]

Hello,

can you recommend a backcountry site on near or just off one of the trails or near one of the trailheads at Mt. Baldy? I haven’t found much information out there.

Thanks,

John

[Jeff H]

John,

Mt. Baldy has two places to camp. The ski hut (about half way to summit) and the car camping area near the parking lot. See this link for details about the car campground (look at the part that says “general description” for more details about this campground):
http://activities.wildernet.com/pages/activity.cfm?actid=050103IO*53390cg

I don’t know the contact information about the ski hut…someone will have to help you out there.

There isn’t any real good “backpacking” opportunities on Mt Baldy because its a relatively short hike, easily done in 5 hrs (in the summer) if you’re in decent shape.

I have friends who have snow camped near the summit in the winter, but I’m not sure what the restrictions are for that.

Check the Mt. San Antonio (Baldy’s REAL name) write-up for an overview of the trails: http://socalhiker.net//hiking-mt-san-antonio-baldy-loop-trail/

There is a ranger station in Baldy Village, but this peak isn’t in their jurisdiction. Still, they may also have some info.

[Jeff H]

Update: Here’s the info on the Ski Hut, maintained by the Sierra Club:

http://angeles.sierraclub.org/lodges/sanantonioskihut.html

[Kristy Dixon]

Hey guys

I saw you tweet about this SoCalHiker so I thought I’d let you know I’ve done an overnight camp up on Baldy earlier this year. We walked up via the Mt Baldy Trail (6.4 miles) – left late Saturday afternoon and camped out, then walked out as the sun rose on the Sunday morning. Good fun, beats a Saturday night in the city.

I think the challenge for backcountry activities is that the mountain has all kinds of boundaries criss crossing over it. If you check out a Tom Harrison topographic map, on the western side there’s a boundary to the Sheep Mountain Wilderness, LA County and San Bernardino County line cuts straight over the mountain and it also straddles the Cucamonga Wilderness. On top of that, San Bernardino National Forest and Angeles National Forest have a boundary going over the summit.

There is camping at the trailhead for the Ski Hut Trail (called Manker Flats) though I’m not sure if it’s open year round. If you wanted to be 100% sure on where to camp without further research that’s a good bet.

Otherwise, I’d pick up a map and have a look at where you might want to camp, then you can contact the local agency to find out if you need a permit. We set up camp below West Baldy so we were on National Forest land, and because we didn’t have a fire we didn’t need a permit for that.

Hope this helps!

KD

[Jeff H]

That’s brilliant, Kristi! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to have to try that myself someone soon.

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