WARNING: The usual access to this trail may be closed. Andres Ruetman reported on 9/1/00 that the road to the trailhead was closed on 6/9/00 just beyond the Guffy Campground turnoff. This adds an additional 4.2 miles roundtrip and 400' altitude gain to the hike, making the hike 15 miles roundtrip with 5000' altitude gain total.
This closure is listed on the official ANF website as "Blue Ridge Road to Lupine and Cabin Flat - CLOSED", so you might check that page to see if that statement has been removed.
The closure is due to the need to conduct surveys for the mountain yellow-legged frog (see December 22, 1999 News). Some hikers have found that the road has been intermittently open for brief intervals, but it is not safe to assume that if you find it open that it will stay open. On 9/1/00, the Santa Clara/Mojave Rivers Ranger District office said that the report that the road would reopen on 9/21/00 was erroneous, due to a miscommunication between the many agencies involved in reopening the road, and that the road continues to be closed indefinitely. Only vehicular traffic is forbidden; hikers are OK.
Nearly every source lists the altitude gain/loss for this hike as being 3000', which must have been taken from Robinson. This altitude gain/loss is incorrect; the correct altitude gain/loss is 4600', a whopping 1600' more than Robinson published in every guidebook from the first edition in 1973 to the sixth edition in 1990.
Here are the altitudes of points along the way for the basic trip as described in Robinson, without going to the summits of Pine or Dawson:
Location Altitude (feet) Altitude change from prior point (feet) Shoulder of Wright Mountain 8310 -- Saddle 8180 -130 High Point on Trail 8555 375 Saddle between Wright and Pine 8460 -95 High point on shoulder of Pine Mountain 9480 1020 Saddle between Pine and Dawson 9151 -329 High point on shoulder of Dawson Peak 9500 349 Saddle between Dawson Peak and Mt. Baldy 8780 -720 Mt. Baldy 10064 1284 The total gain from the beginning at the shoulder of Mt. Wright to Mt. Baldy is 3028', which is probably where Robinson got his value of 3000', but Robinson neglected to add in the altitude gain on the way back, which is 1274'. The total altitude gain/loss is thus 4302' for the round-trip. Going to the summits of Pine (9648') and Dawson (9575') adds an additional 243' if you go to the summits only on one leg of the trip, and an additional 486' if you go to the summits each way. Since nearly everyone goes to the summits on one leg of the trip, but not both, I have listed this trip as an elevation of 4600', a bit more than the total given here of 4545' to account for a bit extra of up and down along the trail.
Finally, it is apparently easy to get lost on the way to the trailhead. Both times I have hiked this trail, I have met people who had gotten lost, and one of the hike descriptions below also describes starting off on the wrong trail. Beware!
The links below are in reverse time order. My writeup has a fairly complete description of the hike as of 9/16/99.
Blue Ridge to Mt. San Antonio (Mt Baldy), ANF, Sheep Mountain Wilderness (10Aug00), DesertMud
Blue Ridge to Pine Mountain, ANF, Sheep Mountain Wilderness (05Aug00), DesertMud
Mt Baldy Via Pine And Dawson (30Oct99), Dan Lee
93: Blue Ridge to Pine and Dawson Mtns. And Mount San Antonio (16Sep99, 08Aug83), T. Chester
Blue Ridge to Mt. Baldy (23May99), Stan Shimotsu
Wright Mountain, Pine Mountain #1, Dawson Peak, Circle Mountain, Gobblers Knob (01Oct88), Lou Brecheen
Blue Ridge to Mt. San Antonio (Mt. Baldy) (??), from the official ANF site. Note that the total altitude gain is incorrectly given as 3000' instead of 4600'.
Blue Ridge to Mt. San Antonio (Mt. Baldy) (??), GORP. Note that this page gives only the one-way mileage, and neglects to mention the extra elevation gain on the return trip.
Blue Ridge to Mt. San Antonio (Mt. Baldy) (??), Etreking.com. You have to scroll down quite a bit to find this, or do a "find". Again, the altitude gain is incorrect.
Trails of the Angeles, John W. Robinson, Sixth Edition, January 1990, #93, Blue Ridge to Pine and Dawson Mtns. And Mount San Antonio, p. 205. (< 1990) Note that Robinson deleted this trip from the Seventh Edition, and that Robinson incorrectly gave the total altitude gain as 3000' instead of 4600'.
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Copyright © 1999-2001 by Tom Chester.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to me at this source:
http://tchester.org/sgm/links/93.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 15 January 2001.