Fun but tough hike! We got to the trailhead a little later than planned and got on the trail at 6:45 am – there were already a bunch of people on the trail, but there’s plenty of parking. We took the Baldy Bowl trail up to the summit and then descended down the Devil’s Backbone. We made it to the summit around 11 am, pretty crowded up top. The Baldy Bowl trail is very steep and you gain about 4,000 ft in about 4 miles. The old ski hut is about halfway and is a great place to rest and have snacks. The pit toilet there is open for use. The Devil’s Backbone is a beautiful ridge trail down to the ski lodge – much more gradual decline. The lodge was open, serving food and drinks. While going either direction would be great, I liked going up the steep part first, lots of tree cover. The Devil’s Backbone is basically all exposed, and was pretty hot. After the lodge you just take the fire road all the way down to the parking lot – felt nice and easy coming down after a hard climb to the top! Made it back to the trailhead around 2:45 pm, but had spent about an hour at the lodge. Our total hiking time was about 6 hours and 20 minutes.