Iron Baldy Traverse Heaton Flat to Manker Flat (and back) 5/26/07 Inspired by Rick Graham's recent adventures I was hoping I could get back in the game too. Having suffered from some sort of respiratory infection for nearly 7 weeks I was unsure whether I was finally back to 100% health or not. My performance during the past couple of months had been seriously affected and even one week earlier I was still having some problems. This weekend I figured I'd put my system to a more substantial test (probably not a smart thing to do). My plans were not completely solidified. The only sure thing was that I was starting from Heaton Flat. I arrived at the filled Heaton Flat parking lot Friday night just before midnight and set my alarm for 3am. I've never seen so many cars and people in the San Gabriels. It was a circus. My 3 hours of sleep was constantly interupted by cars coming and going. By 3am I was a bit wiped out by lack of any decent sleep. To make matters worse I hadn't really gotten much sleep the night before either. As a result I was slow to get going. It took nearly 45 minutes before I could summon up enough willpower to get up. Finally, at 4:14am I was on my way. My first goal: summit Iron Mountain in less than 3 hours. I assured failure right from the beginning by bringing what for me was an insane volume of water: 3.5 liters. Thus I decided to save my energy and took a more casual pace to the summit. Despite hauling the full volume of water to the summit I still managed 3 hrs and 30 mins. This was considerably better than I had expected and I had not had any breathing problems. Thus there was no reason not to proceed over to Baldy and back (as I have done before). And so I did. Just like last time the push up to Baldy was an ass kicker. It took a ridiculous 8 hrs to make the round trip from Iron Mountain. By the time I got back to Iron Mountain it was dark and I was well spent. Oh, did I mention I dropped down to Manker Flat and had lunch before returning? Ok, let me clarify. After reaching Mount Baldy (12:12pm) I was out of water (left most cached at Gunsight Notch) and I was hungry. I didn't have my secret weapon of a meatball sandwich or left-over pizza. Thus I descended down to Manker Flat (stopping by the ski hut along the way). I ran most of the trail and was surprised at how polite everyone was to let me pass. Down at Manker Flat I found the snack bar was open. This may have been the happiest day of my life. Even if it was heated up in a microwave that burger combo and a smoothie really hit the spot. I forgot to catch his name but the snack bar owner and I carried on a conversation for some time. This is the point where you might think I cached a mountain bike for a bike return to Heaton Flat. Since this wasn't my original plan I had no bike stashed. I would have to return the way I came (in essence starting all over). I was at Manker Flat for 38 minutes before starting my return. On my way up the ski hut trail an occaisional soul would recognize me from my earlier trip down. When I explained I was doing Mount Baldy twice in the same day (a modest simplification) I got reactions of surpise and shock. Due to the time of day a lot more people asked if I intended to go to the summit. Funny! More shocking was the actual truth. Having completed the Iron-Baldy traverse in it's entirety from Heaton Flat to Manker Flat I was now doing it all over again in the opposite direction. After filling up my 20oz water bottle at the ski hut I proceeded at a substantially reduced pace to the summit. I reached the summit of Baldy for the second time at 4:33pm (2 hrs 34 mins from Manker Flat). After wasting over 20 minutes attempting to make a couple cell phone calls I proceeded to complete the traverse back to Iron Mountain. I finally reached Iron Mountain at 8:22pm. It was now dark and I had to use my headlamp all the way down. The descent seemed a lot more difficult this time (more slippery) than the last two times. My dayhike finally came to an end when at 11:42pm I finally arrived back at the Heaton Flat parking lot. Total time was 19 hrs 28 mins. Total distance was 30.5 miles with about 16,000 feet elevation gain (GPS says 18,000 but I don't trust it). One nice benefit to having used both trailheads (which didn't occur to me at the time) is that I can say I summited both peaks twice in the same day via two different routes. Time from Heaton Flat to Manker Flat: 9 hrs 7 mins Time from Manker Flat to Heaton Flat: 9 hrs 43 mins Ok, anyway, that's it. Time to catch up on more sleep. Log 04:14am - Left Heaton Flat parking lot 07:44am - Reached summit of Iron Mountain 08:46am - Gunsight Notch 12:01pm - West Baldy 12:12pm - Mount Baldy 12:18pm - Left Baldy 12:36pm - Ski Hut 01:21pm - Manker Flat 01:59pm - Left Manker Flat 03:10pm - Ski Hut 04:33pm - Mount Baldy 04:55pm - Left Baldy 07:20pm - Gunsight Notch 08:22pm - Iron Mountain 11:42pm - Returned to Heaton Flat parking lot Stats Time from Heaton Flat parking lot to Iron Mountain: 3 hrs 30 mins Time from Heaton Flat to Mt Baldy: 7 hrs 58 mins Time from Manker Flat to Mt Baldy: 2 hrs 34 mins Time from Heaton Flat to Manker Flat: 9 hrs 7 mins Time from Manker Flat to Heaton Flat: 9 hrs 43 mins Time at Manker Flat: 38 mins Time from Baldy to ski hut via scree descent: 18 mins Total Time: 19 hrs 28 mins Notes Total liquid consumed: Abt 5 liters 11th and 12th summit of Baldy 3rd and 4th summit of Iron Mtn