Okay… I did not like Mt. Baldy.

I've always dreamed of hiking here–I remember stories that my grandfather told me of his ventures up there. Back when I was a kid–before a lot of development and building in southern California–you could actually see Baldy from their house on a regular basis.

Maybe I was just a little “off” on September 8th.. but I didn't enjoy this hike.

I felt like it was taking FOREVER. By the time we reached the ski hut, my thoughts were: “We're ONLY here?!”

I also don't love loose rocks/gravel… so that might have had something to do with it.

Anyway — the views were quite nice at the (very packed) summit.

It would have been a gorgeous day to go down Devil's Backbone, I hear, but we went down Ski Hut, too…. which… wasn't my favorite (due to the rocks/gravel).

Because September was an exceptionally hot month this year, our descent was pretty toasty. I'm happy that we started relatively early to avoid the heat.

I will give this one another try, but as a loop instead of going up and down the same way.