Baldora Mine Hunt

SocalHikes Hiker — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:03:09 +0000

What a hike this was…

Starting at East Fork and taking the Heaton Flats trail up to Heaton Saddle, we then cut east at the saddle and followed an old trail to get to our destination. Withing 50′ of taking this trail from the saddle, you quickly realize what you’re in store for. Brush, overgrowth, and yucca. But it’s all negotiable if you don’t mind getting pricked along the way.

There are some spots along the trail that are washed out and it’s a scramble across. The video below is the first of three such areas. This was probably the worst of it since the dropoff is a little steeper and more menacing than the others.

Past this, you can follow the old remnants of the trail as it snakes along the mountain. This trail is pretty flat and there’s hardly any gain along the way. We followed this trail until we got to the creek where a downhill scramble is required.

That video is from the creek bed looking at back at the trail. It’s not as bad as it looks.

We followed the creek bed for a good ways, doing some bouldering and rock hopping along the way.

We then cut north and found some old remnants of car which that was pretty rusted over. It also had wooden spokes! So that’s gotta be pretty old.

We continued along this path just north of the creek. The canyon here starts to narrow a bit, so you’re pretty much forced to do some bushwhacking and route finding. After path finding for about a mile, we finally got to an old shack. This was a pretty cool place to have lunch and just check out.

After having lunch here, we continued up the creek a little ways just to explore a little more and hopefully come across another mine. We did find some other machinery there. But I was more preoccupied taking pictures of the creek.

This was pretty much the end of the exploration. We did go up about 200′ along the mountain and discussed an alternate loop route involving Iron, Baldy, and Eagle mine. But that’s for another hike and discussion.

The way back was the same as the way there. Yucca is always annoying, but there are ways around it.

Check out my pictures from the day here.

Meetup Description here.

Read Ze’s report here.

Stats:

Mileage: 14 miles
Gain: ~5200′

#	Latitude	Longitude	Elevation	Distance	Time	Avg Speed
1	N 34° 14' 13.58"	W 117° 45' 54.83"	620 m	0.000 mi	0s	-
2	N 34° 14' 34.57"	W 117° 45' 24.39"	720 m	1.004 mi	29m 10s	2.06 mph
3	N 34° 14' 38.72"	W 117° 44' 46.07"	992 m	0.999 mi	25m 50s	2.32 mph
4	N 34° 15' 05.66"	W 117° 44' 19.03"	1203 m	1.004 mi	24m 50s	2.42 mph
5	N 34° 15' 23.69"	W 117° 43' 24.17"	1437 m	1.000 mi	27m 41s	2.17 mph
6	N 34° 15' 49.16"	W 117° 42' 56.58"	1317 m	1.001 mi	52m 40s	1.14 mph
7	N 34° 16' 09.28"	W 117° 42' 18.57"	1293 m	0.997 mi	35m 41s	1.68 mph
8	N 34° 16' 30.58"	W 117° 42' 08.55"	1445 m	0.998 mi	41m 00s	1.46 mph
9	N 34° 16' 28.89"	W 117° 42' 09.55"	1427 m	0.998 mi	58m 10s	1.03 mph
10	N 34° 15' 56.03"	W 117° 42' 30.58"	1268 m	1.005 mi	45m 30s	1.33 mph
11	N 34° 15' 39.89"	W 117° 43' 13.78"	1368 m	0.997 mi	32m 40s	1.83 mph
12	N 34° 15' 12.16"	W 117° 43' 49.98"	1298 m	1.004 mi	40m 50s	1.48 mph
13	N 34° 14' 54.66"	W 117° 44' 41.58"	1162 m	0.996 mi	20m 00s	2.99 mph
14	N 34° 14' 36.59"	W 117° 45' 01.11"	880 m	1.000 mi	22m 20s	2.69 mph
15	N 34° 14' 29.65"	W 117° 45' 40.94"	621 m	1.003 mi	20m 20s	2.96 mph
16	N 34° 14' 13.54"	W 117° 45' 54.92"	625 m	0.511 mi	9m 28s	3.24 mph
		Summary	5974 ft	14.515 mi	8h 06m 10s	1.79 mph

SocalHikes.com - Southern California Hike Reports and Trail Information » Wilco Mine

Baldora Mine Hunt