I wish I could make contact with my two old college buddies to share this website and video with. I’ve tried Facebook and our college alumni intranet system to no avail. Hard to believe that some people are still difficult to find on the internet.

I did this on foot with two college buddies in 1993 (the day before our senior year classes began at Cal Poly Pomona). It turned out to be the adventure of a lifetime. We left one car at Heaton Flats and then drove our second car along Glendora Ridge Road to Mt. Baldy. I don’t think GRR is open anymore but it was back then. We left my truck at Baldy and ascended Baldy by 8am then proceeded down the same path as you. It was quite fun boulder hopping until we got to the “bushes from hell”. Unfortunately what is not shown under the snow are these nasty thorny bushes reminiscent of the crown of thorns. We ended up dropping off the ridge numerous times to avoid the bushes as we were wearing shorts but eventually, to keep to our timely schedule, we ended up going through them. At the end of the hike our legs looked like the actor who portrayed Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ. All of our white socks were blood red. During the hike we pondered how one could possibly go over these and not hurt themselves (snowshoe like bottoms, perhaps?). Anyway, we too got to the face of Iron Mtn and realized that we would not be able to traverse it without ropes and protection and so descended into Coldwater Canyon. We found three mines (Gold Dollar, Eagle, Baldora) along with the railings and pulleys still hanging in the air and even found a near mint condition Pennslyvania Oil can which we assumed was a predecessor to Pennzoil. As we were not concerned with collecting artifacts but rather getting out alive, we left it there. We too could not find the trail that was supposed to run north of Widman Ranch. There were “NO TRESPASSING” signs all over and so we desperately looked for the trail. After wasting 20 minutes to no avail and dusk upon us, we ventured through the ranch that looked like something out of Deliverance or Southern Comfort. We never saw an old man but saw many cars on blocks with expired license plates. We treaded lightly as quickly and quietly as possible and then near the end of the ranch we heard some guys panning for gold in the creek. We kept going and eventually after crossing the 40+ creeks, got back to the road to Heaton Flats. When it was all said and done, we had to go back to Baldy to pick up my car, and didn’t get back to Cal Poly til 2AM. We went to school the next day showing off our “still fresh” wounds on our legs. It was too painful to wear anything over them!

Ze – we started down Dry Gulch, but got worried it was going to cliff out, so we headed east and then northeast (back toward Baldy) into the neighboring drainage. One of our maps showed a trail there, but we never really found anything persistent. It’s rough country back there!