| Peak | San Gorgonio |
|---|---|
| Group | N/A |
| Trailhead | Vivian Creek |
Since I had started the Six Pack of Peaks later in the year (end of July), I was running out of time to finish the last two peaks I needed to complete the Challenge. Since San Gorgonio and San Bernardino are so close together, I decided to take a long weekend to camp in the area and finish my hikes. I had posted on the Six Pack of Peaks forum to see if anyone wanted to hike San Gorgonio with me on 9/15 or 9/16. I had multiple responses for 9/16, which I had realized was the most practical date anyway. I woke up early on Saturday to allow enough time to have coffee, hydrate, and make a lunch to take on the trail. Unfortunately, I had left my Jetboil stove with the canister filled with water over night in the bear box in my campsite so that it was ready to fire up and heat it for coffee in the morning. I had no idea how cold it was so my frigid water took forever to boil. I finally headed out to head down the mountain to the Vivian Creek Trailhead. I arrived about 4:45am and easily found parking. I had to gather my gear up in the dark by headlamp and realized that most of the hikers starting early had already left. Those that remained in the parking lot arrived after me and took their time getting ready. Since I didn’t see either of the groups of women that had offered to have me join them, I set out solo into the dark forest shortly after 5am. I focused my attention getting up the steep switchbacks. It was a lot of work. I made it and continued up the trail. I got disoriented a couple of times in the dark but quickly realized that I was on the correct path. I kept a steady pace and after I had been hiking for a while, I ran into a group of women from the forum that had offered to have me hike with them. They had sent me a message to meet earlier than planned but I didn’t receive it because I was already up in the mountains camping. Glad I caught up to them as better late than never! For this long of a hike, I was glad to have company. We continued on and found that the wind and the chilly air meant that we really didn’t want to stop for many breaks. We persisted and made it to the summit shortly before 11am. We ended up take a forty-five minute break on the summit to eat lunch, take photos, and chat with the other hikers. We ended up hiking back at steady pace as well just to get down off the mountain so we could take our shoes off and relax after a very long hike. Thankfully the wind had died down quite a bit so we plodded along steadily for what seemed like dozens of miles. I was so ecstatic to reach the end of the trail and head back to the cars at 4:30pm. Vivian Creek is beautiful but it is one tough trail!
