San Gorgonio Memorial Day Weekend 2009

[simonov]

For the second year in a row, I planned a three-day trek through the San Gorgonio Wilderness, including a San Gorgonio summit climb, for the OCHBC. Last year was a bust because of a twisted ankle (mine) and cold nights too extreme for my dog. But this year everything went off perfectly.

There were eleven of us, including Fritz from this board. At least one of the hikers was a relative noob (it was his second backpacking trip) and for another of them it was her first overnight hike ever. Everyone did well; it was a strong group with great chemistry and we all had a fantastic time.

This was a hike I had done a couple times back in the eighties, and features my favorite approach to Mt San Gorgonio, via the Fish Creek Trail (actually, I start at Aspen Grove to avoid the car-killing drive along the dirt road to the Fish Creek trailhead). Here are the stats:

Day 1: Aspen Grove to Fish Creek Saddle trail camp (6.8 miles; 2,395' elevation gain).

Day 2: Fish Creek Saddle to Mt San Gorgonio, then down to Mineshaft Flat trail camp (11.8 miles; 1,694' elevation gain (to summit), 2,219' loss).

Day 3: Back to the Aspen Grove trailhead from Mineshaft Flat trail camp (9.6 miles; 2,510' elevation loss after 640' gain).



All the photos I took of the hike are available on my Flickr stream (sorry Hikin' Jim, you'll have to look at these from home), and you can also download a Google Earth KMZ file of the route.

We got a later start than I would have liked, with everyone chowing down at the Oaks in Angelus Oaks. Meeting at the Oaks has become a sort of OCHBC tradition for San Gorgonio hikes and we are becoming familiar to the the staff there. They make great breakfasts.

We got moving just before 10:00am. It was sunny with patchy clouds for which we were grateful during the long hot climb up the front ridge of Grinnell Mountain. As we passed into the Wilderness Area, I got this shot of Fritz:



Everyone seemed to be in pretty good shape. About three miles in, we stopped for lunch at one of my favorite picnic spots near upper Fish Creek Meadow.



After lunch we headed up the front (eastern face) of Grinnell Mountain. As we came around the final switchback we saw Mt San Gorgonio for the first time:



We got into Fish Creek Saddle trail camp at about 2:30pm. This is one of my favorite trail camps, except for the necessity of bringing water up a steep draw from Lodgepole Spring, a mile away. As Hike Organizer I nominated myself and two of the strongest hikers, Scot and Kumar, to go down and fetch water, and two of the ladies came along as well, not really understanding what they were getting into.

There was plenty of water at Lodgepole Spring, but the flow seemed to be as feeble as I have ever seen it, which is alarming this early in the season.



Collecting and carrying the water was just the most miserable part of the weekend, coming right after a long seven-mile hike with full packs. I always dreaded it back in the day, and let me tell you it doesn't get any easier when you reach your mid-forties. I think we filtered at least 20 liters of water, and didn't have the presence of mind before we started to bring some packs along to pack the water back up the draw. So we improvised:



When we returned with the water, everyone started cooking and then a little later we broke out the liquor, mostly wine and some tequila. Though I was sleepy and got into bed as soon as it got dark, the rest of the hikers partied on until about 9:00pm, when everyone went to bed.

The next morning dawned and I went for a walk to get a shot of Mt San Gorgonio in the morning sun:



We decided we didn't have enough water among us to last until we got down to Mineshaft Flat trail camp, so another party set out to get some more water at Lodgepole Spring. It was still a tedious business, but not as difficult as the day before because they were refreshed after a night's sleep at nearly 10,000 feet. After they returned, we packed up and started on the trail again by about 9:15am.

We passed above Dry Lake and noticed it does seem to have a bit of nasty green swampy stuff in the middle of it. I had expected it to be completely dry:



We dropped our packs near the junction of the trail to Mineshaft Saddle with the trail to Big Tree. One of our party had had a little too much fun with the wine and spirits the night before, and decided not to summit with us. Neil, the OCHBC chairman, who was reluctant to walk on snow in any case, escorted him down to Mineshaft Flat to recover. The rest of us headed up.

We shared the hike up the Sky High Trail with at least two Boy Scout troops, as well as other hiking parties. It was Memorial Day weekend, after all. Still, there were only two small parties with us (including the rangers) at Fish Creek Saddle, and one family of four at Mineshaft Flat, so we can't really complain about crowds. It only got busy on the trail to the top, and of course on the summit itself.

Here we are at the first of about six or ten snow crossings on the Sky High Trail:



It was great hiking up the Sky High Trail with our lightweight day packs. We had spent the night at almost 10,000 feet and as far as I could tell no one was really affected by altitude. The sky was just about cloudless, but of course at that elevation the air was relatively cool.



Things got tough a few hundred feet below the summit, when the trail ran into a long snowfield we were reluctant to cross without proper equipment.



So we started climbing straight up to the top instead. Ugh!



The summit was a crowded mess. There were between 50 and 100 people up there, mostly Boy Scouts. Most of them were crowded around the summit marker and registers.



We spent some time eating lunch and relaxing in one of the camping pits, and then just before starting back we got one of the scouts to take a traditional summit photo:



The hike back down was uneventful. We collected our packs and continued down the hill to Mineshaft Flat. It is always a demoralizing business walking down into Mineshaft Flat, realizing you have to climb back out the next day (I think Fritz was grumbling about it a little), but it is really one of the most beautiful trail camps in the Wilderness Area, and relatively isolated, too.



Scouting around the trail camp, I saw many animal tracks, mostly deer, but also what appeared to me to be bear tracks:



Another party headed further down the trail to collect some water at the spring. This was easier than at Lodgepole Spring because the spring is only about a third of a mile from camp, and not as steep of a climb back. Then everyone got together and Frank made chicken quesadillas.



It was cooler on Sunday night than Saturday night, and there was a slight but cold breeze blowing down from Ten Thousand Foot Ridge. Apparently a bear visited the camp during the night, since Fritz and others heard him breathing and moving around. He never came near me, sleeping tentless a little ways away, and didn't seem interested in the bear canisters we had stacked up not too far from my sleeping bag. I suspect he was attracted by the glow stick that lit up Fritz' tent for most of the night, and hadn't yet learned to associate backpackers with food. Probably his interest in the glowstick evaporated once he learned there were humans nearby, and he left the camp.

My god, the night sky was beautiful, with the Milky Way streaking across the clear sky right above my sleeping bag.

The next morning there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we broke camp and started our march back up the hill to Fish Creek Saddle.



We had spent two nights at high elevation and already hiked almost 20 miles in the last couple of days. I don't think anyone had any difficulty during the one mile of climbing up out of Mineshaft Flat. But during the climb I got another glimpse of why I keep coming back to Mineshaft Flat:



On the way home, we stopped again at upper Fish Creek Meadow for a rest and a snack:



We got back to our cars at about 1:15pm, which gave us plenty of time to head back to the Oaks for a celebratory lunch, where we learned that their lunches are as good as their breakfasts, and where Denise, the first-timer, was kind enough to treat us all.

So ended the 2009 edition of my favorite hike in the San Gorgonio Wilderness. We were lucky this year in so many ways, with the weather and the group chemistry and just about everything. I think a few lasting friendships started during the weekend. The only down note was the number of people we ran into at the summit, but for the rest of the weekend we had the Wilderness Area almost to ourselves.

[Hikin_Jim]

Nice hike! Great area.

I've always wondered if it wouldn't be easier for everyone on a trip to fill up a gallon jug (or whatever) at the last water above Fish Creek Camp and just haul it up to FC Saddle rather than having to descend to Lodgepole and return. It's shorter to Lodgepole, but you have to climb to the saddle anyway, albeit with a full pack. Dunno

By the way, Kaiser has relented, and I can now see Flickr from work.

HJ

P.S. Been reading Colin Fletcher's Thousand Mile Summer. What a guy. He carried up to 70 pounds at times if I'm reading his gear and water list correctly, and as far as I can see no belly band. What an animal. Cool old gear, but glad lighter stuff is available now.

[He219]

Nice TR Mitch!

Yes, heading down to Mineshaft Flat was well worth the view, bearz and all ..


Some interesting specimen:

Snow Plant / Sarcodes sanguinea (saprophyte)

Don't know (already searched 'skunk cabbage')

[Richard N.]

I was at Mineshaft Saddle a few years back and ran across a man and his daughter that were hiking across the wilderness. They were doing all 9 peaks. He told me that he had hiked up in the weeks preceding their hike and stashed water in various location. He knew that most of the areas they would be in would have dry springs. In all he stashed about 10 gallons of water across the ridge line.
Now thats dedication... and of course the smarts to be sure they had all the water they needed to truly enjoy their 5 days in the wilderness.

[He219]

couple of pix:


Dakota wreckage

10k Ridge

Replaced Tibetian Flags I put up last year with Ryan

SoCal's peak

Mitch heading down toward the Tarn

North Fork Meadow

Old Grayback from Mineshaft Flat

[Taco]

Good ol' Manshaft saddle.

[simonov]

The guy in that video with Fritz was Frank. This was his second backpack trip ever. Though he has adult children, he was probably the strongest hiker in the group after the kid, Kumar. He likes cooking at altitude and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself at all times. He was always laughing about something. I look forward to going on more hikes with him.

[Hikin_Jim]

Great (additional) pics! Good schtuff!