Charles

[FIGHT ON]

Charles is a guy I met at the Mount Baldy Village Ranger Station about a year ago on a Sunday. About two months before that at Christmas I decided that before I die I wanted to hike to Mt Whitney. So I started to look on line about that hike and discovered how hard it would be and about the lotto and how much you have to prepare yourself physically to make it. I don't know much about camping so I wanted to do it in one day. I decided to start to train and go on hikes on the weekends. I did not have much hiking stuff other than a book bag day pack and running shoes. I was so excited to start hiking so I hiked to Mt Wilson on the toll road by myself my first hike and my wife picked me up. The following weekend I hiked to Mt Baden Powell alone. I read how many people use Mt Baldy as a training hike so I read about the different hikes that go up there. I liked the thought of the Bear Flat route because it said that it is the longest and hardest way up and most people take other routes. Man that is the hike for me. I thought if I can do that I can go ANYWHERE!! I looked at google earth and tried to trace the trail about a million times. I found this TopoZone map and got it to line up and actually could follow most of it. I was really excited. So after church on Sunday I drove out there and parked right in front of the Ranger Station. Another car pulled up exactly at the same time and this guy gets out. He has EVERYTHING. Brand new huge pack and all this designer stuff ice axe etc so I asked him where he was going. He said Bear Flat to Baldy.
I said so am I and I asked him if I could hike with him. I had been reading also about mountain lions and bears and was happy that he wanted to go with me. He said he was starting to get in shape for a hike that he was scheduled to do in a few months in Oregon and this was his first training hike. His pack weighed over 60 lbs and he had just purchased these brand new show boots that he wanted to break in. It was like 10 am when we started which I now know is way too late for that trail because the sun beats down on that part past the bear flat area. So I have my day pack and shorts and a bunch of water bottles that weigh about maybe 20 lbs max and Charles is dying. Charles is also wearing a black long sleeve shirt which I thought made him that much hotter. About a half a mile past bear flat we have to stop because he has ripped the skin off both his heels. He looks in his pack and forgot is moleskin and forgot it. I don't have any either so he decides to just go on but just go slower. I don't mind because frankly I realize the value in hiking with anybody. By this time I had told him all about my goal of Mt Whitney. He said he had been there many times and would not mind "sacking that peak again". So his feet are killing him as we go up and we stop many times and finally decide to go back after getting past the point where you can look down into Coldwater Canyon and where the trail turns right. We barley make it back before the sun goes down. Charles feet are in bad shape. We exchange phone numbers and I tell him I want to go next week and try to make it all the way up. He later that week told me that his feet are so bad that he can not join me so I did it alone. That hike was so scary for me. I met nobody on the way up. When I got around that right turn and walked over this ridge the wind started to blow. I felt like I was going to get blown off the mountain. I made it to the top where I was very happy to see ANYBODY and walked down the Manker Flat trail which was not shown on my old map. The people on top said not to go on the backbone trail so I followed them down and got a ride back to my car. When my cell phone got in range I called Charles and told him I made it. I was so hooked on hiking now. That trail is so cool. All the weird trees and you can see forever. Clean air and everyone you meet is really nice. So Charles tells me I need to get more elevation experience and says I should go to Mt. San Gorgonio via Vivian Creek Trail. He has been there many times and wants to hike to Vivian Creek Camp on Friday night, camp in his tent and summit on Saturday. I agree and during the week I tell as many of my friends about these plans. I get a wide range of reactions like, that sounds great to dude you hardly know this guy and you are going to go inside a pup tent with him in the middle of nowhere? I started thinking, I really don't know this guy do I? When one of my friends said, you could be woken up in the middle of the night by this guy wearing a clown suit handcuffing you,:shock:, that did it. I still wanted to go but NO TENT. So I called Charles and said that I could not hike up with him on Friday but could drive up on Friday late and sleep in the parking lot at the trail head. We made plans that he would time himself from the parking lot to the camp and add that time to my start time which was to be 4 am. I drove up on Friday night and saw his car and parked right next to it. I set my alarm for 3:45 am and went to sleep in the back of my car. There were no other cars in the lot. At 2:30 a truck pulls up right next to my car and wakes me up. I thought it was a ranger going to kick me out. It turns out its this guy with a huge dog getting ready to hike. So I roll down my window and ask him what the heck he is doing at this time of the morning. He says he is going on the same trail that Charles and I were planning on. His dog is running all around the parking lot with one of those blinkers on his collar. It is dead black outside and all you can see is this red blinking light zooming all over the place. So after talking to him for like ten minutes he leaves at 245 and calls his dog to go with him. His dogs name is Charlie Dog. I go back to sleep and wake up and start to hike at exactly 4. When I get to Vivian Creek I see a few tents and start to look for Charles. NOBODY ANYWHERE just tents. So I start to call for him and get no answer. By this time I think its after 5:30 I can't remember but after getting no answer from anyone I figure he has gone on without me. So I start walking as fast as I can up the trail to catch him. I can not remember the names of the camps that I passed but on one I found a note on a post that had my name on it. I opened it and it said, FIGHT, I am so sorry but I was in a deep sleep in my tent and heard what I thought was you calling my name up trail. So I quickly got my shoes on and left at around 4:30 and tried to catch up only to discover this guy with a dog he kept calling to stay with him. I will meet you on the summit. When I finally met up with Charles he said he was chasing that guy and calling my name only to hear the guy calling for Charlie Dog. He said he was sure it was me calling for him. FIGHT ON

[simonov]

Great story, but I'm sure you could have done it all in one paragraph.

[cynthia23]

I disagree Simonov, all the details are what made it so interesting. I like hearing about how someone new gets into hiking... so thanks for this story Fight On, it was funny and engaging.

[Cy Kaicener]

That was funny charles. Here is one about a dog named Sex
http://www.snopes.com/humor/jokes/namedsex.asp

Here is a true story about a 75 year old man that was hired by Walmart
http://www.scribd.com/doc/389057/Walmar ... -SeniorLOL

[FIGHT ON]

My story may be slow but it sure is sloppy.

[FIGHT ON]

Cy. Those are funny. My wife is still laughing. Last year after I finished that Vivian Crreek Hike I found a new hiking buddy Scott and we hiked up San Gorgonio twice more. I remember walking back to the parking lot and telling Scott that we had just conquered the hardest hike in southern california. Some guy was following right behind us and he said no it is not. He said C2C is much harder. I had no idea what he was talking about so when I got home I found your site and and studied it. I had received the Mt Whitney passes for three people by then and I convinced Scott to go with me. I picked him up at his house every Saturday at 4 am and was on some trail hiking by 5. We mainly did Baldy and those peaks around there but I kept telling him about your hike. I finally convinced him to go with me so on the way out there we were drinking so much water we had to stop a million times to pee. I had him so scared that the sun was going to bake us if we didn't get up high enough soon enough that he jumped out of the car at the museum and started to run up the trail. I had to chase him to tell him to slow down. We ran into a group of hikers led by a lady named Diane. We followed them all the way to the tram. She told all the places where she hiked and I was amazed. Climbing up the face of Whitney leading a team, wow. Scott barley made it and I was did ok so I decided to do it again the next week. So I drove back out there and slept in the Museum parking lot and started really early like 3 am. But this time I got lost. I'm not sure were it was and I always wanted to know what went wrong. I think it was at the area where the elevation is on the ground in rocks. I ended up going in the opposite direction. I remembered from the first hike that the trail went to the left and down some and then went back up. I wasn't paying much attention because we were following a conga line. But this time I was alone. I kept hiking thinking I was on that decline but after 15 minutes of looking at the tram going behind me I turned around and went back to that spot. I was scared. I really was alone. I decided to go down this other trail that went to the right and thought it would end up going back down to the museum. It turned out to be the right one because some guy caught me that was running and told me I was going up the right way. I guess my question is where the heck did I go wrong? Some one told me I was on a trail that went to some hippy canyon. I want to hike it again this year when the ice is gone and don't want to go the wrong way again. If you have any idea please let me know. Thanks. FIGHT ON

[Cy Kaicener]

Hi Fight On - You might have got lost at the 4900 ft level where the trail drops down over 100 feet and then continues going up again. The stones are at the 4400 ft level. I dont know of any trail leading to a hippie canyon. You are welcome to come with me when most of the snow has melted. I will post it when i will be going.

[FIGHT ON]

Cy. Thank you for the invite. I am not set up for snow so I will wait till it's gone or safe enough go to up to the top of the tram. Thanks again. FIGHT ON