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It was decided a trip to San Gorgonio Mtn was the ticket!
With permit in hand we left the trailhead at 7:15am
I have only done SG-Mtn once and that was overnight from South Fork Trail, overnight at Dollar Lake, overnight, return, this was sometime back in the mid-90's
The prospect of 5200+ elevation gain was daunting but I was up for a challenge!
- 1.15 00:42 SGW bdry
- 2.89 01:53 ½way camp
- 4.97 03:27 High Crk Camp
- 6.01 04:23 ridge
- 7.56 05:40 SB Pk Divide Tr
- 7.76 05:48 Sky High Tr
- 8.10 06:00 SG Summit
My friends who hail from Germany had the obligatory beer on the summit, and had to finish it or their citizenship would be revoked.
I was flying down but one in our group had knee problems so we didn't get back to the TH until 7pm He wasn't the only one with knee problems on the mountain this day, but such is life on the trail
I had tried trekking poles in the past and didn't care for them. I got a wal-mart cheapo pair for this trip and found them very much to my liking. At least for this type of hiking, so if you've like me tried'em in the past...Give'em a go again on this trail
We where a bit concerned on the way up with dark clouds building and reports of lightning, hail, & snow from people descending who had spent the night on the Summit, we just had some clouds and sun with cool temps and variable winds up to about 40mph. It was chilly and all I brought was a windbreaker, my fellow hikers had fleece, etc....
On the way up we looked at High Crk, looks like a trip down this canyon could be in the cards for the weekend of 6/6 & 6/7
I noted 2 groups of younger hikers who turned back after burning themselves out on the lower part of the trail, "you guys gotta pace yourselves" Oh well we where all young and eager at one time
Might do this trip a few more times before my high sierra trip this summer... good training and not a bad way to spend a day!
Cheers
Matt
