The Bald Italian 10064' Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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Cache is located at summit of Mount San Antonio 10,064' aka Mount
Baldy - the high-point for Los Angeles County. This is a
3900'/3900' 6.5+6.5mile strenuous (but class 1 non-technical) hike.
A weekend chair-lift ride reduces this to a strenuous 2300'/2300'
3.5+3.5mile at altitude hike. Season is May - October(November),
come late in the season after a Santa Ana wind for an incredible
view of Southern California.
An excellent on-line description of the mountain and the routes up
to the top is
here - the most straight-forward route is
the 'Baldy Notch/Devil's Backbone'. Also refer to these
publications:
Jerry SCHAD: 'Afoot & AField In Los Angeles
County' or
Gary SUTTLE: 'California County Summits',
both books available for reference at local area libraries but
are well worth purchasing.
Park at the entrance to the locked gate Falls Rd
(Topozone map) a
USFS Adventure Pass is required
($5/day/vehicle), or continue up the road a short distance to
the ski-lift (weekends/holidays 9:00 till 4:30, $10, however
recommend you call for recorded message 909-981-3344 ). Water is
available at the Manker Flats campground at the bottom and at
the ski lodge at the top of the lift, be sure to carry plenty of
water for the hike to the summit and stay hydrated.
The cache shouldn't be difficult to find using the GPS alone, for
the spoiler you'll need to bring along a compass.
First person up there don't forget to claim the Los Angeles county
highpoint at the
'H' Is For Highpoint cache.
Initial contents of the cache were:
1. Solid 1 oz genuine silver coin - (the first prize!)
2. Gold coin from the
Lorenzo's Gold cache
3. Cheap wooden airplane toy - (I wonder how far it would fly from
here?)
(Logbook and pencil)
Please don't leave food or candy!
Something to think about once you reach the summit, on Labor Day
every year they have a race from the bottom of the ski-lift, then
down the hill to the Falls Rd entrance and then all the way up to
the summit, the record was set in 1987 by Matt Ebiner(M) in 1 hour
0 minutes and 49 seconds!! Fastest Female Carrie Garritson (Age 11)
1:15:32 !! (details Mt Baldy Run 2 The
Top) wow!!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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