Up Baldy and a Forest Fire...

I finally had a full day to play with Saturday, and made it up to the top of Mt. San Antonio (Baldy) again. It had been awhile, and I certainly was done in when I made it to the top. To my delight, when I got back down again, my legs (and knees) still felt okay.

It was a beautiful day, mild (much warmer than last week!) and comfortable. I even spotted some big-horned sheep right near the top of Baldy, just a few hundred feet from the summit. They were incredably mellow, not minding me being 50 yards away and staring at 'em, and not minding the other party a hundred yards away that was pretty much shouting (so I could hear them clearly) about how wonderful it was to see the sheep. Heh.

From up on Baldy, I even spotted a forest fire over by the Bridge to Nowhere (10 miles or so west of Baldy). By the time I was almost off the mountain, clouds of smoke were turning the sun blood red, and I spotted an aerial tanker heading over to hit the fire. According to the news, something like 75 acres were burned Saturday.

It's still burning now -- that's no surprise, it's a tough hike in to where the fire is, and I suspect that it isn't anyone's big priority, since there aren't any homes back in there to burn. There's just not much of anything.

Hopefully they'll get it contained -- it would be too bad if they had to close that area to further hiking. There are already a number of Hundred Peaks summits that are closed due to the Day Fire in October.