Sometimes I have great ideas, and sometimes they are just awful, either way I go into situations (mostly of my own making) full steam ahead. The decision to peak Mount Baldy seems to fall more and more into the latter category.

Hindsight is 20/20 and apparently I caught a cold on Wednesday, I spent most of Thursday in bed and went right into work on Friday, having forgotten that I had agreed to peak Mount Baldy the following day. Since I was already feeling better I figured, why not let’s bag us a peak ????????  I over medicated and Saturday morning I started to feel a bit better than the day before.

Well, that didn’t last long because it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest the ENTIRE way up! Did I mention the part where we decided to take the Baldy Bowl trail to the summit? After numerous breaks, and stops for me to blow my nose we finally made it to the peak! Where I promptly proceeded to LEAVE my phone behind ????????‍♀️ I unfortunately did not realize this until we had reached the Baldy Notch.

So here I am .. dying, I can’t stop my nose from draining, I am losing my voice, and now I just don’t know how I can make it back to get my phone. Thankfully after making it back to my car I am able to borrow a phone to call my mom. My phone had been found!!!

An angel named Marisela found it, and the rest I swear is what she told me. She looked at the lock screen photo and tried to match it to someone at the peak (wasn’t going to happen because the picture happens to be of my mom). She figures even though reception is spotty she will make every effort to listen for calls. She puts the phone into her sports bra and at some point during the hike back realizes there is a voice coming from the phone. Her boob sweat unlocked the phone and somehow dialed my dad’s number!! After she hung up with my dad, she proceeded to call, of all people, my mom. Mind you my mom knew I was sick and I told her I would not be hiking. I got busted soooooo bad!!! A few hours later I was able to retrieve my phone in Seal Beach.  Who knew that Boob Sweat had the ability to find phones and simultaneously get one caught in a lie.

I wish I could tell you more about the trail, like watch out for this or keep an eye on that; but let me be honest, I could barely breathe and up until I got to the peak I thought I was going to collapse .. BUT I was too stubborn to stop the forward momentum. My time wasn’t great, but the views at the top were gorgeous. We came back down on the Devil’s Backbone, which except for the first mile or soo (super steep) wasn’t too bad, though I can see where you don’t want to try that with snow on the trail.

I am sure this isn’t the last time I summit Mount Baldy, but this was definitely the most memorable one!

Oh yeah, and guess what?! I didn’t get lost or go off trail! Until next time, be safe and make better choices than I did.

Watch out San Bernardino Peak, you are next.