Mount Harwood, Mount San Antonio

6 July 1991

By: Luella Fickle

Leaders Luella Fickle, Dave Jensen

At 5:35 am, Erich and I received a call from my coleader, David Eisenberg. He had a bad cold and didn't feel up to hiking. When Erich and I drove into the Mt. Baldy Carpool point, we saw Dave Jensen. I drafted him as my assistant for the day. After giving driving directions to the drivers, we drove to San Antonio Falls Road and signed in. Jack Trager had called me the week before and informed me that there was a large "do not hike" sign under the ski lift. The weather was cloudy, so I pushed the group up the road to the notch. After a short break they pushed me up the ski run to the Devil's Backbone. It was windy and cool. We climbed Harwood from the high point on the trail to the SW of the peak. We stayed only long enough to sign in as the clouds were darker and it was very blustery. We cut down directly from the summit to the trail.

By the time we reached Mt. Baldy, it was much warmer. The clouds were breaking up. We had lunch there. Evan Samuels told me about the trail down to the ski hut. I'd gone down the bowl three times, but always down the scree slope from the notch between Harwood and Mt. Baldy. This trail begins at the summit of Mt. Baldy and goes down the ridge just to the west of the bowl. Dave Jensen had done it before, so I asked him if he'd lead it. He agreed so we had a lovely loop trip. Three signed out on the summit of Mt. Baldy. Two wanted to go back the way we had come. Dave Michels had a permit for the Three T's so he wanted more. The nineteen of us got back to the cars just after 2 pm. This was my quickest ascent of Mt. Baldy.

My thanks to David Jensen for his willing assist. Having many strong leaders who are willing to help when needed has been an asset for the club.