I began my weekend on the morning of June 8th by driving to the Manker Campground at the foot of Mount Baldy. As I approached the site, I was astonished by the number of cars parked along the road! There must have been near a thousand people on Mount Baldy on this beautiful June day. As I hiked up the Ski Hut trail, I must have hiked through 50 people or more. This is no exaggeration, there were really that many people on the trail. Tons of people hung around at the ski hut. Just past the ski hut there are magnificent views of the Baldy Bowl, which is a steep pitch made entirely of scree. I pushed on and found some steep relief after you cross the Bowl and turn north for the summit. This was a challenging leg of the journey! On the way up I had a close encounter with a large black snake with a diamond shaped head which rattled at me as I hiked past! I did not stop for photos with this one. When I topped out on Mt Baldy, I found that many people were hanging around on the summit in rock outcroppings, snapping photos and celebrating. The air is cool at the top, small patches of snow around. I stopped for a photo and a breath and pushed down the Devil's Backbone to the ski lodge where I ended my hike with a burger and a beer. That is a great place to hang out. Finally, I rode the ski lift down to the bottom with a beer in hand and walked back to camp for the night to prepare for day 2: Cucamonga Peak via Icehouse Canyon! My next update will be the Cucamonga hike.