The Baldy Notch
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace
will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will
blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
John Muir
This cache can
be accessed at least three different ways:
Route A)
This route will require a higher level of
preparation.
- First, you must drive through rough terrain and a 4WD is
recommended.
- A parking waypoint is given. It's location is on 3N06 just past
Big Horn Campground. These campgrounds are "unimproved" but are
very nice in a "rustic sense" and could be used as a Base
Camp.
- You need to hike 4.1 miles with an altitude gain of 1740 feet
to get to the cache.
- The trail is actually road 3N06 and is still accessed by motor
vehicle only by the Forest Service. If you ever see the gate torn
down please DO NOT drive around it, per discussion with Lytle Creek
Rangers, the road is permanently closed.
Route B)
- Access is from Baldy Road/Trail and is about 3.6 miles from
start to cache with a 1680 foot gain in altitude.
- Access to trail head is before the Mt Baldy ski area and
parking is available.
- This trail can be hiked, or if you are up to it, try it with a
Mountain Bike just as
Biker guy does.
Route C)
- This route really does not require as much planning except for
hitching a ride on the Mt Baldy ski lift and concluding with
a very short hike to the cache location.
History of the
trail from Lytle Creek to Baldy Notch
This dirt road constructed in 1894 connects Stocton Flat on the
Lytle Creek Road to Baldy notch in the eastern San Gabriel
Mountains. The road surface is mostly gravel-sized and larger
rocks.
this road was built by the Hocumac company to service the 14
gold mines owned by them, and replaced a wagon road constructed in
1883 from Lytle Creek to Baldy Notch along Coldwater Canyon to
reach the Banks (Gold) Mine. The new road was a vast improvement -
wagons had to be lowered by a winch on one part of the wagon road.
These roads were the only access to Baldy Notch at the time.
The Banks Mine used hydraulic power to separate gold from sand
and gravel in a gully just south of Baldy Notch. Hocumac was an
Omaha-based Company named with the beginning letters of the three
owners: Holcomb, Cushion and Mackay.
A dramatic food delivery had to be made in June, 1884 when four
miners and there families were trapped at Baldy notch by a severe
late season storm. When word reache the Pomona Valley, a relief
party of 17 men organized, each man carrying 25 pounds of supplies
fot the marooned families. Bucking deep snowdrifts and felling
trees to cross swollen streams, they struggled for three days to
reach Baldy Notch. There, they found the snow bound men, women and
children were passing from cabin to cabin through tunnels within
ten foot snowdrifts, and their food supplies had dwindled to ten
pounds of rice.
The original cache contents included: Vivitar 7x50
binoculars, camp flashlight with batteries, 2 can/bottle openers,
emergency poncho, water proof match stick container, disposable
hand warmer, eye glass repair kit, 4 packs of 4 each AA batteries,
and a geocoin.