What a hike! I watched a few YouTube videos before hiking this trail and I must say, I was a little nervous. One of the videos explained that the “devils backbone” was terrifying and there was “no shame in getting on your hands and knees” to cross this section. What did I get myself into I thought!? My group and I started heading up, and I thought that the video suggested that we continue on the dirt road to the trail. Diane, the other lady in my group, insisted we turn onto Baldy Bowl and hike that way. It didn't really make a difference so we went Baldy Bowl. We got a slightly later start than we planned so when we started hiking, we were met with the sun pretty early on. Really from Ski House on we were in direct sunlight. The other guy forgot his sunnies this hike. Man, what a hike to forget the sunglasses! We hiked up the switchbacks which were pretty steep. We got to a section where there were tons of trails. I remember from the video that we can take any one of then since they all lead to the same place, but it is a little nerve-racking when you have so many paths! We made it to the top within a few hours. What a view. It was beautiful up there. I wish there was a standard hand held sign at this peak, sitting next to the sign was not optimal for pictures. We headed down shortly after eating and taking too many pictures and from that point on we were BAKING in the sun. We all had sunscreen which was good, but that sun was no joke. The switchbacks heading down had loose rock which made it difficult keeping my balance. We made it down, and heard the horror stories from upbound hikers of how scary the backbone was. At this point I was just anxious to see what all this talk was about. We finally made it..and what a let down. I am sure going down it instead of up was a different experience. But I didn't see anything even remotely scary in this section. Maybe I just was mentally prepared. Who knows. We continues down to the restaurant and got a cocktail. That was a nice little treat! We continued down the dirt road and made it back to the car safe and sound. I will say, this was not my favorite hike. All that sun is exhausting. I ended up getting a few blisters on my lips from too much sun. The road down was steep going down which made me very appreciative that we took that way down and not up. Glad we got this done though and super excited about the next trails we will conquer.