I arrived at Manker Flats at 6:15am, got good parking and met up with my group. We began the hike following the ski lift up toward the Notch restaurant around 6:45am. We took a break at Notch Restaurant and enjoyed the views and a snack before we began the ascent toward Devil’s Backbone. I LOVED Devil’s Backbone. It is challenging and scary but so much fun! If you have vertigo, take precaution before attempting this trail. Luckily I do not, but one lady in our group was quite nervous, but she powered through her fears.

There was much celebration once we made it to the summit. It was a hikers party on top of the mountain. The weather was perfect and the wind was light. We got very lucky because as we were going up the trail, hikers coming down said it was cold and windy. It literally died down and was very comfortable when we arrived. Once we ate our lunch we decided to take Baldy Bowl Trail back down. It is steeper and very rocky. OMG!!!! I HATED THIS TRAIL!! It was awful. The rocks were very loose for much the descent especially the section from the peak to the bowl. We were sliding down the mountain and I think everyone in our group fell at least once.

Once we arrived at the old Ski Hut, we took a short break. I made a comment that I was surprised my knees were not hurting. I spoke too soon. Shortly past the ski hut we came to an old land/rock slide with large rocks and boulders. It was pretty cool and not too hard hiking over the large rocks, this was when I felt a sharp pain on the outside of my left knee. It got worse and worse to the point that I felt shooting pain up to my hip. A guy hiking past us was a first responder and stopped to check on me. He determined that it was just strained. I took it slow, steady and limped the rest of the way down. I blame this on the loose rocks. Well I made it off the mountain safely but I will NEVER hike the Baldy Bowl Trail again.

With that said, I will hike Baldy again, but I will only hike Devil’s Backbone. This hike took us 9.5 hours and was over 10 miles. Oh and there was a dude riding down the mountain on a Unicycle with a beer in one hand. We also saw some cute little chipmunks on the summit and a bighorn sheep almost at the top of the summit.