On February 2oth right after the last storm, Biill and I decided to hike in the snow. We had a few choices but decided on Josephine Peak. Just an fyi: Mt Baldy has been closed several times this year due to many deaths. The Forest Service is getting a bit stricter on closures surrounding Mt. Baldy including Ice House Canyon as well, which I feel is a good thing. They are doing their part to save live but you still have the few dumb asses who get around it and end up plunging to their death.
Anyhoooo, we started hiking at a chilly 35 degrees. We took the road up. Some of the guys from the Clear Creek Forest station where trimming trees along the road. We were the only ones on the trail going up. The views surrounding us were fantastic! especially the view of Strawberry peak.
As we approached the saddle that's where the snow started to present itself. We took a short break at the saddle and soaked in views of the surrounding snow capped mountains. The most prominent and most snow to me was Mt Gleason. I could clearly see the snow on the trees. It was spectacular!
As we were walking along the road, it was very icy and slippery. Of course I donned my micro spikes but Bill didn't have any. He braved the slippery ice walking very slowly. I gave him one of my poles which helped.
There was snow all the way to the summit. the last push to the top was very slippery and icy. We saw some dumb kids trying to descend without spikes or poles. Mostly on their butts crawling down. Dumb teenagers. How they got to the top, who knows!
However, I did offer my advice and told them what to bring and to be prepared. I hope they learned their lesson.
Anyways, we made it to the top. The old wooden box that was there was destroyed. The top was covered with snow and even the benchmark. I could not find it and did not want to really look for it. It was very cold and windy. We took shelter behind the building behind the solar panels.
I surprised Bill with some hot apple cider. I didn't tell him I was carrying my stove, We sat for a bit and admired the views before heading down.
As we descended the road, several people started coming up with a late start. We found a few animal tracks and the clouds decided to put on a show during our descent.
Overall, a great day for my first snow hike of the year.
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