Spa-aaahh!

I love Olympic Spa. It's been a few years since I've been there and after today's "pure bliss" experience I don't know what took me so long to return. Pure Bliss is the name of the treatment which consists of a thorough body scouring, followed by a polishing scrub and warm water rinse, super slippery full body massage including scalp, finished by a soothing facial. I recommend spending a few minutes in the mugwort tea bath which is kept at a temperature unbearable fore more than 3-5 minutes and calm your burnt skin by dunking into the cold bath for an equal length of time. Steam and sauna for 10 minutes each are enough prep for the next hour and a half of the bliss that is sure to engulf you. If your gelatinous legs will carry you to the oxygen room for 2 minutes afterward do it before a little spot of tea and a nap on the heated floor. Treat yourself to an amazing Korean lunch and relax the rest of the day. Repeat. Sooner than every few years.

Old Baldy

As part of our prep for the Mount Whitney hike later this year, my friend and I have been making our way around the local mountains. Luckily we have lots of training ground within a couple hours driving. Today we climbed Mt. San Antonio a.k.a. "Mount Baldy", the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains measuring 10,064' and the 3rd highest peak in Southern California. It was killer but we did it and lived to tell about it. The ascent was over 4000 feet and we ticked off 10.5 miles round trip.

Mount Baldy is a popular skiing area and the chair lift runs all year long (for those who want to cheat). We started hiking at about 6000' and followed a pretty easy path up to 7800'. From there, it was a crawling incline through extremely steep and loose shale straight up to 8600'. It was tough but when I saw the war vet who'd lost both his legs in combat scaling that terrain with braces on his arms and prosthetic legs there was no way I going to complain. He was in training for the 7 continental highest peaks in the world, already surmounting 4 of them and leaving for Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa in 6 weeks. Some people are so inspiring.

The next few miles over 1400 feet of elevation gain was equally and intermittently easy and strenuous. The air is much thinner at 10,000 feet making it a little more challenging. We were on a trail aptly named "devil's backbone" where in spots the trail is so narrow with vertical drop-offs on either side. It was a little harrowing given your center of gravity when the wind decides to kick up. This is a popular hike and two way traffic is common on a single file path with nary a crevice to slouch into at times. I was a bit unnerved at one point when I had to hug a bolder and shimmy around it to keep from toppling over the edge. The last mile to the summit was the most grueling of the entire ascent plodding our way up the steep and relentless switchbacks having to stop very often to muster the strength to put one foot in front of the other. Appearing like the surface of the moon and nicknamed for the absence of trees, Old Baldy's head was a welcomed sight. Incredible 360 degree views of So Cal with the other 2 highest peaks, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, in snow-crested view made our efforts that much more rewarding.

After a lunch break and a picture we started our descent knowing it was downhill from here and expecting it to be easy breezy beautiful. My friend had experienced a mild panic attack when terra firma on either side was lacking and he refused to return the same way. So we took the other way where there wasn't exactly a clearly marked trail. In no time we were totally off the trail and literally skiing down the steep, slippery, rocky side of the mountain. Thank goodness we saw some other hikers and made our way toward them and the path they were on. However, the path was never very distinct - it was loose, steep and positively hazardous. I can say with certainty it was more difficult coming down than it was going up. Bye bye Baldy my old friend, never to see you again.

After all that I am so proud of our accomplishment and pleased with the gauge it provided on our abilities moving forward toward the big kahuna. Next up, San Jac. at 10,800'.

(props to my thoughtful photographer and hiking partner extraordinaire, J. Nitowitz)