Friday morning 7 am and the parking lot was almost empty. It was 35 degrees and I opted for the down jacket, not the fleece, though that would have been fine after the first hour. I saw one person on all of the Icehouse trail section, and 3 more at the top. It was a gorgeous cool day, with stunning vistas. Was super glad I brought the micro spikes; particularly after the saddle most north facing slopes had snow. At the last couple of switchbacks altitude slowed me down to turtle, but it wasn’t too bad. At the top (took me just over 3 hours) here was sun, no breeze, and the few people left quickly. It was totally gorgeous and I spent more then an hour just loving it. Awesome views and total solitude. I will surely go back. Oh, and the sign got stolen again, the pole was laying in the shrubbery.
Felt brave and decided to bag mount Bighorn as well. Rather then going all the way back to the saddle, I took another hiker’s idea to use the ridge trail from the minor saddle as a short cut. This is about halfway after the Icehouse saddle, just as you start the big ascent. This is a goat path of sorts, very steep, a bit treacherous, and probably not to be recommended. It added 4 miles to the hike and a total elevation gain of more then 5000 ft. But after Cucamonga peek I thought the Bighorn was not that spectacular (here, too, the sign was stolen, come on people!) On the way down some excellent views of the Baldy bowl, I could see the next challenge! No snow on the trails there as they face south, just a tiny bit of white on the very top.