San Gorgonio Peak via South Fork Trail

brian90620 · Post by **brian90620** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:50 am

This last weekend 10/24-10/26 my gf and I backpacked up to San Gorgonio Mountian via the South Fork trail

. We arrived at the trailhead Friday afternoon about 2pm. The plan was to make it to Dry Lake Campground before dark, but that didn't happen. We were dragged down by the weight of all our gear

, we later realized that we had overpacked. We ended up setting up camp near South fork meadows in a spot we found that was already cleared of rocks as a campsite. The next day (Saturday) we awoke early but took our time packing up, by the time we left the campground it was about 10 am. We headed up to Dry Lake next, where we took a break, cooked ourselves something to eat, and filtered water from Lodgepole spring. After a while, we were back on our way up to Mineshaft saddle, where we arrived by about 3pm. Since it was only 3 we decided to try to make it up to the top of San Gorgonio Mountian so we could camp at summit campground, which of course didn't happen. By about 4:30 we began searching for a spot to camp since it was getting cold and I wanted to make camp before dark. We ended up finding a little spot off the side of the trail just before the switchbacks going up to the top. After setting up our tent, we cooked our dinner as fast as possible because it was getting cold, we went inside our tent expecting to freeze overnight but actually to my suprise it was quite mild. The next morning we awoke at about 6am and hiked up to the summit with only water, we left our overnight gear back at the camp. When we arrived at the summit we had pretty good visability in every direction, which was really cool. I blazed a kush filled swishersweet at the top 8) and we chilled for a while knowing that we had a long ass hike back down to the car with heavy overnight gear. By about 10:00 am we were back at camp packing up our stuff. By 11 we were on our way down the mountian. When we arrived at Mineshaft saddle we looked at the map and decided to do some cross country hiking down the hillside directly to Dry lake instead of taking the longer trail route. When we arrived at Dry lake we once again filtered water at lodgepole spring. From this point on we hiked pretty much nonstop back to the car only stopping once to observe a deer we saw eating grass in South Fork meadows. By about 4pm we arrived at the car, pleased to be there,

ready for a nice warm meal on the way home. Overall we had a lot of fun backpacking in the San Gorgonio wilderness!!!!
Here are some pics if anyones interested:
http://picasaweb.google.com/brian90620/ ... 7891017426

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 11:53 am

Cool hike and cool pics. Really nice, sharp pics from the summit, which is very cool. A lot of the time there's a lot of haze up there. And a gf who hikes. Overnight. How cool is that? I should have her give a "pep talk" to my wife.

South Fork is a pretty heavily used area, so it's best not to camp there. I kind of understand since you guys were caught out when darkness fell. Just something to think about for next time.

HJ

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:24 pm

nice...like the water filter....neat views. How heavy are those packs if you dont mind me asking?

Post by **Taco** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:15 pm

Too cool dude. Pretty cool to have a girlfriend who'll do that with ya.

Gotta get yerself a real cigar, though. 8)

brian90620 · Post by **brian90620** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:59 pm

AW wrote: How heavy are those packs if you dont mind me asking?

My pack weighed about 37 pounds. My gf's weighed like 28 pounds. They were pretty heavy

, especially going uphill. We overpacked on food and and clothes. We were carrying alot of can food.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:37 pm

brian90620 wrote:
AW wrote: How heavy are those packs if you dont mind me asking?
My pack weighed about 37 pounds. My gf's weighed like 28 pounds. They were pretty heavy , especially going uphill. We overpacked on food and and clothes. We were carrying alot of can food.

Duuude. Canned goods are fail. You have not only carry 'em in but carry 'em out after you've eaten what's inside.

Of course you can get freeze-dried backpacking specific food at Sport Chalet or whatever, but that can be a bit pricey. There's a lot of stuff at the local market that is dried and can be had for more reasonable prices, things like instant potatoes, soups, noodle dinners, rice dinners, Cream of Rice cereal, etc. Knorr makes some good instant products.

Hope that helps.

Dudley Heinsbergen · Post by **Dudley Heinsbergen** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 10:04 pm

Awesome!

i like canned foods on 1 or 2 nighter trips. mainly because freeze dried sucks, and there's no trout in the local mountains. STAGG chili is the way to go.

kush in swishers...nice. like Hikin_Jim said there usually is a lot of haze up there....where ever i go too. purple haze...Hahahah. its pretty rad at high altitudes....my favorite was afghan atop 13,005 ft Mt Gould in the High Sierra. my voice was shattered for the next 3 days because i couldnt stop yodelling. i couldnt get over how loud the echo- was bouncing off of the jagged glacial peaks!

simonov · Post by **simonov** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:00 am

Dudley Heinsbergen wrote:i like canned foods on 1 or 2 nighter trips. mainly because freeze dried sucks, and there's no trout in the local mountains. STAGG chili is the way to go.

Ditto. Don't be hatin' canned food on short hikes! It tastes better than the dehydrated crap, and empty cans weigh a lot less than empty beer bottles anyway.

Stagg chili is one of my favorite dinners on overnights. To avoid washing up, I place an opened can in a pan of water and cook it that way. Yum!

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:00 am

OK, maybe I'm prejudiced against cans.

I think I schlepped so many cans (C Rations) when I was in the army that I developed an aversion for them.

I still like pouches (instead of cans) and freeze-dried/dehydrated foods, but each to his or her own. Some of the freeze-dried/dehydrated foods from the regular market are actually pretty good.

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:02 am

Nice slide show. Now that's a memorable "date" for you and your girlfriend.

brian90620 · Post by **brian90620** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:34 pm

Augie wrote:Now that's a memorable "date" for you and your girlfriend.

Yes, it was quite a date

. We slept in a tent for two nights, hiked all day with heavy packs, ate canned food, filtered our own water, and yet we still managed to have an excellent time.8) Now all I need to do is convience her to go snow camping at Little Jimmy Campground in a few months

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:49 pm

brian90620 wrote:Now all I need to do is convience her to go snow camping at Little Jimmy Campground in a few months

RIGHT ON! Dude, you are da man!

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:37 pm

brian90620 wrote: Now all I need to do is convience her to go snow camping at Little Jimmy Campground in a few months

Assure her that you will stoke up your furnaces and keep her plenty warm.

hvydrt · Post by **hvydrt** » Wed Oct 29, 2008 6:05 pm

brian90620 wrote:Now all I need to do is convience her to go snow camping at Little Jimmy Campground in a few months

I can see it now.......brian90620 with his heavy pack, carrying a 5 gallon propane tank for the heater.

Once I was on the Vivian creek trail early morning in November. there were 2 guys in sleeping bags on the ground at Vivian Creek Camp. They had one of these heaters!!!!!!!

Can you imagine carrying that up there