| Peak | San Bernardino |
|---|---|
| Group | n/a |
| Trailhead | San Bernardino Peak trail |
First a WARNING:
Around 6-6.5 mi up the trail at 9000ish ft., you go around a corner of the mtn to the left. Right after the lead person I was hiking with went around, he saw a big and “thick” rattler cross from left (the mtn) to right (the rocky downslope) and disappear under a rock at the side of the trail. Snake immediately came out and got HYPER aggressive, hissing, spitting, rattling like crazy, and coiled he said (we had both jumped back so I did not see the snake but for sure heard it). He first threw a small rock near but not at it so the vibration would hopefully scare it down the hill away from the trail. It held its ground and did not even budge when the fellow hiker poked (very carefully; he is familiar with snakes) with his pole in the area again to cause vibrations to scare her away from the trail. He had to throw a larger rock closer to her to get her to retreat a little down the hill, at which point we ran past, but she still was super mad and we could hear her rattling, hissing, spitting, etc. I reported it to the ranger when we got back, who agreed it probably was a pregnant female who was aggressively protecting her nest. She appeared ready to strike; idk if it was all defense, but please be aware as she seemed committed to that spot and it was right next to the trail. Descending, weather was moving in so we luckily did not see her, but our third hiker who had gone ahead had the same behavior a few minutes before we came upon the snake.
Other than that, we were in shade or clouds all but 1 min of sunshine and totally calm conditions at the peak. The trail was beautiful – clean, mostly ground sandy dirt with a few easily manageable rocks. San Bernardino rocks are tan, btw; Baldy grey; San Jacinto white which was really cool. Saw zero poison oak or stinging nettles. Mostly pines at lower elev, then manzanita, then a few straggly pines closer to the summit with some scattered really pretty wildflowers. Saw one or two birds and a handful of lizards descending. The trail for the most part is not steep but a constant climb – we counted only four paces of downhill in the entire 8.5 mi up! From about 8500 ft up I took little elevation acclimation breaks as needed every 500 or so feet, to get a few sips of water or grab an electrolyte chew or apple. It was only my second time over 10K, and we all did fine with this approach as there were 2+ miles hiking steadily up at 9500 and above. We averaged about 1.5 mph up but 2-2.5+ down with the rain and storms – we carefully trail ran the spots we could safely! We hiked a total of 8.5-9 hours and spent about 1/2 hour at the peak.
Also, the bench on the side of the mountain is a good mile and a half before the peak. The trail is a slow ascent which wraps around the back of the mountain and culminates in a flat summit with a little pile of rocks to mark the peak. The peak itself has limited views (nothing like Cucamonga or Jacinto); however, the bench drop-off was significant and dramatic enough it gave me a touch of vertigo it just was that extreme, so I stood a little back from the edge as I had never seen anything like it before. Clouds were forming and we could see rain showers over the lower elevations – it was spectacular! From the bench the views really were awe-inspiring!
A bit after starting our descent, thunder started from a VERY rapidly out of nowhere developing thunderstorm over Gorgonio (warning – that mountain is a t-storm magnet on monsoony days). We saw no lightning but heard frequent low, rumbling thunder, and we were in pretty open terrain the upper 2/3 of the mountain – manzanita and some dead pines that looked from a fire some years ago. So we moved quickly downhill, as fast as we could safely considering the trail surface. About halfway down, a light but constant rain started to fall and stuck with us all the way to the car.
BTW we got up the dirt road in a midsize car going mindfully around the ruts with 2 people in front, 1 in back. There were regular passenger vehicles at the trail head. Only people we saw coming down were 1 family and 1 solo campers, as we left at first light, and on our descent we passed 2 small groups of 2 coming up. So we mostly had the beautiful mountain and beautiful views to ourselves!
