The $88 Summit Run

What a perfect day on the trail! Because we were able to go on a Tuesday we basically had the entire mountain to ourselves for the first few hours. We did the loop exactly as explained in the Baldy description – Manker Flats to the notch, up the Devil’s Backbone & back down through the Ski Hut Trail. We met a few friendly people at the top and hiked down with a woman who has summited Baldy somewhere between 50 & 100 times! She has lost count. At any rate – the sky was brilliant blue, the snow was mostly gone from the trail but still in patches that made the scenery amazing, and the wind was just perfect. Not too breezy but just enough to keep us cool. It was a butt-kicker of a hike but so worth the work. The view from the top is insane! It took us seven and a half hours which is super fast for the Hiking Vikings. We must be getting stronger! In case you are wondering about the $88 – we were just heading out from the notch when I shouted “OMG it’s Tuesday!” Frank gave me a “so what” look. “Tuesday is street sweeping!” In our rush to leave the house at 5:00am we forgot to move two cars into the driveway and so the city of Huntington Beach is $88 richer. Blisters, lactic acid build up, peeing in the bushes, and parking tickets – it’s all part of the adventure, right?