Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

I apologize for going off topic from San Jacinto but I just have to get board members opinion on what I saw for the first time today on Baldy's Devil's Backbone Trail; at least 100 "pilgrims" hiking from the top of the chair to the summit in furtherance of the Aetherius Society's five annual pilgrimages to the Baldy summit, Baldy being one of the Society's "Holy Mountains". This was my first encounter with the group and as I descended from the summit and passed the pilgrims I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Leaving aside why these folks were up there in the first place, I have to say I have never seen so many totally unprepared hikers on what is a difficult trail on a good day. At least 50% or more like 80% had absolutely nothing in the way of decent clothing, adequate water, shoes, no backpack in addition to the fact that many were woefully out of shape, overweight, wearing sandals, etc. Forget the 10 essentials, nobody had any of them besides a water bottle or two. I saw an old man with a walker, a fat lady with sandals, very overweight 50+ yr old men, and everything in between. It was astounding. It looked like someone chose 100 people at random at LAX to go hike the Devil's Backbone Trail.

Arriving home I looked this group up and apparently they have been doing this for 40 years on Baldy and this year did their first hike in May and plan their last hike on October 3rd. It seems like they are tempting fate in a big way; today conditions were ideal but if the group I saw today was up there in October and conditions changed quickly to the downside, I could see all sorts of problems.

It really was a surreal site and, apologizing again for being off topic, I'm just curious what others think of this group from a hiking point of view.

By the way, if you want to know why they were on Baldy in the first place, here's a link that explains;

http://www.aetherius.org/index.cfm?app= ... &PageID=36

What a day!

Thanks everyone!

Um...all I can say is wow. I'm so glad I missed this! I came up via the Village Trail yesterday, but descended via the Backbone to the Three Ts. I would not have enjoyed coming down into that throng! I must have been ahead of their schedule.

Thanks for the report...very interesting indeed.

Darn! sounds like a gold mine for UNUSUAL HIKING ATTIRE!
when's the next one?

Seems like you missed the point of why they were on the mountain in the first place.

http://www.fs.fed.us/specialuses/special_non_com_uses.shtml

Seems to me they are required to have a Special Use Permit....

Explain what they are doing, mitigate impact, how they are going to deal with problems...etc...

Has Baldy moved or is this topic in the wrong forum?

KathyW wrote:Has Baldy moved or is this topic in the wrong forum?

Kathy -- You prompted me to do something useful today - move this topic to a more appropriate forum.

Kevin wrote:Seems like you missed the point of why they were on the mountain in the first place.

Exactly; as long as they don't litter and allow me to pass, they have just as much right to be up there as I do. Despite their unconventional appearances, it would seem that this is regular gig for them, and since I haven't heard of any mass Baldy SAR mobilizations, they must be doing something right.
Hey, I remember a thread on Summitpost about a religious group having wild sex orgies on Baldy--any affiliation?

Dave G wrote:Hey, I remember a thread on Summitpost about a religious group having wild sex orgies on Baldy--any affiliation?

Why that's awful. That's outrageous. Offensive even. Um, when are they doing the next one?