I used to hike Baldy or the satellite peaks almost every weekend in the 90s and early 00s as I lived in San Dimas and it was a short drive to the trailheads. I know that on the Icehouse Canyon trail if you hike two miles in you are in a designated wilderness area. Technically you are supposed to have a permit, but I have never gotten one nor I have been asked by a ranger to show one. Seems like they don't have the staff to manage it or they take a laissez faire attitude towards it.
You are correct - anyone who hikes into Icehouse Canyon is supposed to grab a permit from the ranger station. I have never ever seen anyone check and I’m willing to bet 90% of hikers in that area don’t even know they’re supposed to check in.
I must respectfully disagree. Any time you get the government involved with open space management, noting but more restrictions are the result. If people want to hike Baldy without the proper experience and preparedness during the Winter months, then so be it. Sometimes one has to "cull the herd" and as Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid"
We've had multiple people die hiking Easton Canyon over the past years, do you wan't to implement permits to hike that trail. Hiking through any wilderness area can't be 100% safe and people should accept this fact before venturing out.
I would agree except that the costs - financial, emotional, physical and psychological - of rescue operations are massive. Having written that, I don't now what the answer is to human hubris.
I 100% hear you. Although I see the benefits of going permitted here, I also know it would add another step and possibly prevent folks from enjoying the mountain. I think it may be worthwhile to introduce some winter restrictions, but I also know that that is entirely weather dependent - if there’s no snow, you can still hike Baldy without snow gear (but bring those layers!) - so it’s complicated!
Interesting that you bring up Eaton. They actually did implement a permit system for a little while. That was due to overcrowding during the COVID pandemic, so for a different reason. I don’t know if they kept data on the rescues and requests during this time period but it would be interesting to see. I do know that rescues dropped after they shut down and enforced the closure of the user trail that went above the falls.
What I had in mind for Baldy was more along the lines of the Fiery Furnace permits at Arches - where you basically just have to go and talk to a ranger before you hike out there. But as I mentioned, I don’t think the Forest Service has the resources to handle this anyway ... but if we have a few more winter seasons like this one, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of a push for restrictions from local governments.
What is a scheduler? And, why is it needed?I have a paper daybook on my desk. I check it at night before I go to bed and in the morning when I first get up. It tells me everything I need to know about the pans for my day, week, month.
A scheduler is a web app I use to load a bunch of pre-written posts into a queue that will post them to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram without me having to actually be on those platforms. It saves me a lot of time!
I used to hike Baldy or the satellite peaks almost every weekend in the 90s and early 00s as I lived in San Dimas and it was a short drive to the trailheads. I know that on the Icehouse Canyon trail if you hike two miles in you are in a designated wilderness area. Technically you are supposed to have a permit, but I have never gotten one nor I have been asked by a ranger to show one. Seems like they don't have the staff to manage it or they take a laissez faire attitude towards it.
You are correct - anyone who hikes into Icehouse Canyon is supposed to grab a permit from the ranger station. I have never ever seen anyone check and I’m willing to bet 90% of hikers in that area don’t even know they’re supposed to check in.
I must respectfully disagree. Any time you get the government involved with open space management, noting but more restrictions are the result. If people want to hike Baldy without the proper experience and preparedness during the Winter months, then so be it. Sometimes one has to "cull the herd" and as Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid"
We've had multiple people die hiking Easton Canyon over the past years, do you wan't to implement permits to hike that trail. Hiking through any wilderness area can't be 100% safe and people should accept this fact before venturing out.
I would agree except that the costs - financial, emotional, physical and psychological - of rescue operations are massive. Having written that, I don't now what the answer is to human hubris.
I 100% hear you. Although I see the benefits of going permitted here, I also know it would add another step and possibly prevent folks from enjoying the mountain. I think it may be worthwhile to introduce some winter restrictions, but I also know that that is entirely weather dependent - if there’s no snow, you can still hike Baldy without snow gear (but bring those layers!) - so it’s complicated!
Interesting that you bring up Eaton. They actually did implement a permit system for a little while. That was due to overcrowding during the COVID pandemic, so for a different reason. I don’t know if they kept data on the rescues and requests during this time period but it would be interesting to see. I do know that rescues dropped after they shut down and enforced the closure of the user trail that went above the falls.
What I had in mind for Baldy was more along the lines of the Fiery Furnace permits at Arches - where you basically just have to go and talk to a ranger before you hike out there. But as I mentioned, I don’t think the Forest Service has the resources to handle this anyway ... but if we have a few more winter seasons like this one, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of a push for restrictions from local governments.
What is a scheduler? And, why is it needed?I have a paper daybook on my desk. I check it at night before I go to bed and in the morning when I first get up. It tells me everything I need to know about the pans for my day, week, month.
A scheduler is a web app I use to load a bunch of pre-written posts into a queue that will post them to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram without me having to actually be on those platforms. It saves me a lot of time!
Thank you for your posting on Baldy. Will be hosting a workshop in the Spring if you are interested in participation.