Bear Canyon Trail to Mount Baldy –

This article details a hike up Bear Canyon trail to the top of Mount Baldy and back down. This trail is probably one of the more difficult trails in the San Gabriel Mountains. The only other comparable trail ( that I have been on ) is the Vivian Creek trail to the top of Gorgonio.

The trail started at the mount Baldy visitor’s center. I parked on the street. The reason I mention this is when we came back down, the gate to the visitor center parking was locked and a car was inside with no way to get out. The trail follows a paved road along a small stream through a densely forested area were little or not sun sees the ground. We passed a series of house and cottages in various stages of their live span. Some of the houses where build in the cliffs and required a pulley system to bring items, like groceries, to and from.

The trail crossed the stream and began the never ending upwards journey. The trail follows the stream for the most part up until Bear flats. This is a moderate climb through wooded area. There is a water pipe that follows, and is part of the trail at places, to a small, green water tank. The trail leads to a small meadow that is covered with ferns and other plants associated with water. This area was recently burned ( 2-4 years? ) and is in stark contrast to the wooded trail just before.

We crossed over the creek and quickly began the second most difficult part of the hike. There trail ascends up a slope to the “Ridge”. There are many switchbacks that take the unwary hiker to the top. The air during this part of the hike seemed much more humid and hot making this section of the trail a real bear. I think the increased humidity and temp are due to the water source directly below and the exposed trail. The trail gets really steep in some places.

We finally made it to the ridge and quickly sat down indicating we would new get up again. The trail continued up the ridge line through pine covered areas. This provided much better scenery than the switchbacks from hell. It also provided more shady spots to stop and rest. The ridge trail only lasted a few hundred yards until the really steep trail started. The trail goes straight up the ridge but has sections of loose gravel and dirt. Several times I was using both hands just to get up. There are plenty of trees along with scrubs of many varieties to break up the difficult climb. After many, many rest breaks, we finally made it to the top of this “ridge”.

This next section of the trail is much more flat than the prior section. This section has fewer trees than the prior section but has outstanding views of the nearby peaks and valleys. The trail meanders its way through scree fields along sometimes steep hillsides. There are fewer trees in this region and the ones that are there have certainly earned the right to be there. A hiker can just imagine the strength of the winds that must come through this region. The trail finds its way to the top of Baldy 1.5 miles or so away. I was hoping for some sort of applause when I reached the summit from the other hikers but none seemed to notice that I had arrived from the “hard way”.

The hike back down was treacherous in places because of the steepness, loose rock and dirt. This was true particularly in the switchbacks and the path down the middle steep area.

We had a great sighting of 3 big horn sheep very near the top of Baldy on the way down. There where three big rams watching us watch them. There were much fewer hikers on this trail. We only had one hiker pass us up, we called him superman. We later discovered that he was hiking with his girlfriend that he left behind on the trail for he wanted to “get his training in”. He is not so super after all. He should not have left her on the trail alone. Not a very smart move I think.

We had 4 people pass us going down the trail while we were still going up and two people pass us on the way down. One was superman, and the other was some crazy German man riding a mountain bike down. Yes, a bike down that trail…We say two dogs on the summit along with 30 other people.

In comparison, there was about 30 or so hikers on the ski hut trail to the top of baldy. Our next hike in a few weeks will be up to San Jacinto leaving from one of the Idlewild trails.