14 miles trail run Mt. Baldy, review and a course map

7/4/2012 - 14 miles trail run Mt. Baldy, review and a course map  (QuintH / HHHHH)

Happy 4th! The genesis of the decision to spend the holiday running up Mt. Baldy, the highest mountain in LA county, goes back about 4 weeks ago when I signed up for the, arguably, highest altitude road marathon in Madison MT. The marathon course averages approximately 9,000 feet above sea level. So I thought that the Mt Baldy 14 miles, out and back, running up to more than  10,000 feet, can be a great prep run. I'd rank the run QuintH / HHHHH on my hRank system!

YES! this run and course up to the summit follows almost identically the course of the "Run To The Top" race. Hope this review can be helpful for those of you who plan to participate in "Run To The Top". (I ran last year, but the race got canceled b/c of thunder storms at the summit so I ran only up to the ski hut)

More details and review of the course with a map are below.

The start of Devil's Backbone Rd.

Mt Harwood to the right of this trail

Mt Baldy - steep and technical run

Cloudy day....no views

Really?

Ranking: QuintH, High altitude course starting at 6,448 ft, Heat- started running in the low 80's,  Hydration was carried on my back - no aid station, extremely Hilly course, running to more than 10,000 ft from about 6,100 ft, the first half of the run up to about 8,000 ft above sea level was Humid.

Distance: +14.19 miles (the reason for the "+" is because the GPS didn't measure all the curves and rather straight lined between points, so all in I ran more than 14.19 miles but that's the figure that was measured so listing that here)

Course: The trail run started in the end of Blady Rd at the parking lot of the chairlifts. I ran down on the paved road and made a right hand turn towards Baldy Falls, from there I ran on the fire road up to the ski hut. This part was about 4.5 miles and elevation gain of about 2,000 feet. This part of the course was hot and humid (I started at 2pm...) but the course was not technical with moderate slope.The fun part started when I got on Devils Backbone Road, though temperatures dropped and humidity was lower, the course got much more technical and the run up the mountain much steeper. Did I mention, much less air? You get the point. This leg up towards Mt. Harwood and then Mt Baldy was strenuous and challenging. Regarding the course, I just kept running up hill until there was no more hill to climb :). The way back to the starting point follows the same course up but reversed.

Crowd: recreational hikers, I was the only runner

The easy part: nothing was easy in this trail run

The challenging part: 6,000 to 10,000 above sea level, bring your own water and food, steep hills, technical course in the second half of the climb from 8,000 ft to 10,000 ft.

Price: Just recreation pass if parked down at Manker Flats.

Pacers:No

Timing:No

Qualifying: None

Official website: N/A

My 2 cents:
1) If I could sleep the night before in the village to better acclimatize to the altitude I would have done it. I haven't and it made this run much more challenging.
2) I was thinking why this run was harder than Yosemite Falls and Cloud Rest trail runs and think that for different reasons. The Yosemite Falls trail run, though greater elevation gain, the run was at a lower altitude and shorter. The Cloud Rest run, though took place in similar altitudes, it had less elevation gain and I ran it after spending more than 24 hours in high altitude including the Yosemite Falls run.
3) I had just enough water, carrying 2 liters, to make it back to my car.
4) I would start earlier than 2pm when it is not that hot and humid

Thanks for reading and as always please don't hesitate to email/reach out with any questions.
Thanks!

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