Mt. Baldy and the SuperMoon: A Midnight Hike

The Crew.

June 23, 2013. This happened to be the annual Super Moon, where the moon is at it's closest and brightest point to the Earth. With all this lunar illumination, we were afforded the opportunity to hike the tallest point in Los Angeles county at midnight. How else could you better bring in the Summer Solstice? I suppose a cold brew and a hot jacuzzi but we were in for a different kind of night. Marc, Sanam, and myself decided it would make for a fine Saturday night to make our way to the summit. This is a 5-to-6 hour hike that spans 11 miles and makes a gain of 4,000ft in elevation from the trail head.
We started at 9pm starting at the Manker Flats parking lot. It was already dark out with a faint glow from the Super Moon appearing from the south ridge of the San Bernadino Mountain Range. The three of us committed to the trail and made our way up the paved road until it gave way to a series of long drawn out fire road switch backs. The fire road is a supply line to the Top of the Notch Restaurant, a full fledged restaurant that hosts live music, full bar, and a respectable menu. That being said about the supply line, we did have to give the right of way to a 20 year old F-250 that came barreling down the road. We nodded to him in his headlights, he nodded back. Onto the notch.
The fire road began to glow from the intense reflection of the moon, our headlamps were rarely necessary. From the lot it took just over an hour to reach the Top Notch Restaurant and we were not disappointed.  It was a little past 10pm and the restaurant was hustling with a middle aged group of outdoors men looking to impress their dates for the evening. This wasn't too difficult as the Top Notch provided a gorgeous view of the city lights a few thousand feet down while a guitarist and bongo player provided the background music from their stage.
We stayed to take in the atmosphere over a pitcher of beer, which we will come to regret in the near future, but for now there was nothing better. Over this pitcher of beer we debated back and forth whether we would be content just hanging out at the bar and calling it a night and trekking back down. We all went back and forth on the idea but settled on the idea that we came up here to summit this peak and thats what we were going to do. So we found the bottom of our pitcher, payed our tab, and marched up the mountain.
We opted to pass on the switchbacks and take the gravel path straight up the slope. With the warm of the IPA burning off, we began to realize how steep this slope was. Nearly a third up the slope, we turned our steady pace into a pattern of step-step-breathe-step-step-breathe. We were still guided by the Super Moon's intense light and appreciated every second of it. While we trudged up the gravel, we would individually catch a shooting star or two. This distracted us from the slight breeze that was picking up. Reaching the top of the gravel slope, it levels out, leading you into the series of backbones that really distinguish this trail from others. With a slight breeze and restricted visibility, the backbones were something to be cautious of.  A sheer drop on both sides would mean a tumble of nearly 1,000ft down the Baldy ridge. This would be a rather inconvenient set back for both the tumbler and his acquaintances.
Edging past the backbones, we rounded the last ridge that brought Mt. San Antonio(Baldy), into sight. Nearly there. On our final approach to the summit, we passed a group of three hikers coming down from the summit, all roughly the same age as us, all with the same ambition of the night. We made small conversation with them as if it were reassuring that we weren't the only ones committed to such a venture. We carried on up. The last approach up to the summit is nearly a climb rather than a hike. It took nearly 40 minutes to get to the top. With the wind picking up, I began to feel the cold. I had underestimated the weather and began to feel the cold. I donned the beanie and thermal that I packed and hoped my short pants covered legs would warm up. We made our way onto the crest of the summit and realized we had made it.
What a sight. It was a little past midnight when we reached the summit. First thing we noticed was the slew of tents on top of the summit. I feel like it kind of took away from the romance of being on top of a mountain in the middle of the night with nothing but the moon light but hey, we all have to share this too. I took a few pictures, attempting to capture the moon's intensity but was sure they did not do it justice. We spent a few celebratory minutes on the peak, taking in all 10,069 feet of it. Now it was time to get down this mountain before sunrise.
Coming down the mountain was rather uneventful compared to the past 3 hours climbing it. We took the Mt. Baldy trail down, in efforts to pass the round about way the fire road took us. This trail makes up for the distance by providing a steep elevation decline through a series of switchbacks and boulder hoping down. We had started getting tired around 2am, nearing two-thirds down the trail, we were getting impatient. Our resting breaks became more and more frequent, breaks for both our physical and mental side. We were ready for bed. Our time was nearing 6 hours on the trail. At about 3:40am, we reached the fire road leaving us nearly .7 miles left to the car. Our spirits were awoken again and we hustled down the pavement to our car. My jokes about leaving the keys on the summit weren't nearly as funny as I thought they would be at 4am.
We made it in the car, I started the engine, and within 5 minutes my company had given into the morning and began their snooze. I was envious. However, this provided me some rehearsal time for karaoke. An hour later, we made it back home. I was proud of ourselves for the 11 miles we put under our belt that night and the -maybe- once in a lifetime sights we saw that night.
Hope you can try this out one night. It's not as crazy as it sounds, just give it a try during the day first.

Hanging onto the ski lift looking down

Head Lamp Selfie.