Last Wed, I hiked the 3 T's for the first time with friends.
A quick perusal of the weather indicated that a Friday Skyline was possible, provided Perry A and I got an early start. We left at 4 AM and were at 3 K when the sun rose. When we reached Flatrock, we opted to keep going rather than stop for breakfast. After a quick pit stop (moving a quart of water to Perry's Camelbak), we made our way up through the manzanita. Both of us hollered Skyline Doreen's "Thank you Jesus" when we reached the beginning of the cool, shaded traverse. Popped over Grubb's Notch in 4:57 -- Perry's first sub-five hour Skyline
We had an hour to kill before being able to ride the tram down, so we wandered over to the Long Valley creek and found a nice spot for brunch.
Then, we mosied up the ramp and waited to see if we could snag a ride back down the tram road to Perry's car. Finally gave up and started walking down the tram road. A lovely group of midwesterners picked us up and dropped us off near the Visitor Center. We celebrated with fabulous Mexican food at the originial Las Casuelas.
On Sat Karin Meyer and I headed up Skyline at 3:30 AM. She had contacted me on Thurs about doing Skyline. I haven't seen my friend for way too long and happily agreed as long as we got an early start. We ran into several of her friends shortly after the picnic tables. Next, we met two Skyline first timers in the Enchanted Garden (the pretty area at the base of the 5 K red ridge). While we enjoyed breakfast at Flatrock, Speedy Steve and Anya came up. Ater quick hugs, they zoomed ahead.
Met several more folks on the way up through the manzanita -- by this time two days in the heat had zapped my energy. It was a blessing to reach the traverse and Grubbs Notch. Karin treated me to an Arrogant Bastard ale at the tram bar. People continued to trickle in. Pat's wife kindly gave Karin, Patty, Pat and I a ride back to the museum. I fueled up again at Las Casuelas.
On Sunday, I got to sleep in
Meet St. John and Cindy at Manker flats on Baldy and gave them a ride down to Baldy Village. Then, Perry A and I headed back up to Manker flats and at 6:30 AM started up the Baldy Bowl (aka Ski Hut) trail. I introduced Perry to Register Ridge. Like me, he enjoys going uphill. We had a delightful breeze all the way up to Devil's Backbone and the summit of Baldy. Saint John, Cindy and others were heading up Bear Canyon -- our shared goal was to head over to Dawson and Pine.
Perry and I started down to the saddle between Baldy and Dawson. Yuck
This was a steep descent in crappy scree and parts of the trail were covered with snow. We breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the saddle and headed up to Dawson. Took a quick fuel break, then followed the ridge trail over to Pine. This was our first time on both peaks. Pine is pretty, but I wasn't impressed with Dawson.
I made the mistake of trying to go cross country back over to Dawson, which cost us about a half hour. As we were scrambling up the ridge back to rejoin the trail, I heard St. John's voice -- their group was leaving Dawson to head over to Pine. He invited us to join them for a second summit of Pine. Ha, ha -- we declined. Dropped back down to the Dawson-Baldy saddle and started the looonngg climb (1.2 K) back up to Baldy.
I heard voices and suddenly the San Jacinto brothers David and Arturo appeared out of nowhere. I told David that he was on the wrong mountain
They had planned to the Baldy-Iron traverse but plans went awry -- they had spent most of the day going cross country -- first to find water and then to get back up Baldy. Ugh Had a nice chat with Arturo as we continued to climb back up to our second summit of Baldy.
Took a quick fuel break, then made our way down the Bowl trail. I've come to the conclusion that Baldy has the steepest and most scree-filled trails of the three Saints. All the use trails don't help either
We passed folks who were slipping and sliding down the forested section before the rock garden. At least our poles helped us stay upright. I was pleasantly surprised to meet GigaMike on his way up. It was a relief to pass the hut -- halfway home from the Baldy summit. As I was stepping on two rocks, I noticed a snake underneath my right foot. Eek 
Fortunately, it turned out to be a nice King snake and I had not crushed it. We made sure it slithered off the trail before continuing our descent.
My feet and quads were toast by the time we reached Manker. It must be warming up, because as I was changing out of my boots, the flies and mosquitoes started their harrasment
Celebrated the end of four magical days in May with gung pao chicken at PF Changs in Rancho Cucamonga.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
