Friends That Hike - San Bernardino Peak to Mount San Gorgonio

08.03.2019 - 08.04.2019
Distance: 31 miles
Duration: 2 days
Elevation Gain: 5,770'
Difficulty: Strenuous
The 9 Peaks (in running order):
San Bernardino Peak: 10,649'
San Bernardino East Peak: 10,691'
Anderson Peak: 10,840'
Shields Peak: 10,680'
Alto Diablo Peak: 10,563'
Charlton Peak: 10,806'
Little Charlton Peak: 10,696'
Jepson Peak: 11,205'
Mount San Gorgonio: 11,503'
San Bernardino Peak to Mount San Gorgonio, probably one of my favorite local backpacking trips. Our second year running and what an awesome turnout it was. What started as a 2 day backpacking trip tagging San Bernardino Peak and San Gorgonio Peak, we managed to turn it into a peak bagging backpacking trip tagging a handful more, while some of us tagged all 9.
Day 1, we started at 6:45am at the Forsee Creek Trailhead and continued up to Limber Pine Campground where we came to our first water source to fill up. From here we each filled up about 6 liters of water, enough to last us through camp, up San Gorgonio, and all the way to our next water source passed Dry Lake. By this time of the day it was starting to become uncomfortably hot, luckily the water was ice cold. We continued up to San Bernardino Peak and then caught the San Bernardino Divide trail that hovers along the 10,000' mark. At this point the temperature was comfortably in the 70's. From here we were able to tag all the other 7 peaks before eventually making our way to San Gorgonio. At the end of day 1 we camped at Shields Camp which is right at the base of Shields Peak, about 2 miles from San Bernardino Peak. The next morning we hiked up to Shields Peak at 5am to catch the sunrise, at what an amazing sight that was. Out of all the 9 peaks Shields Peak is definitely my favorite, and to our surprise someone had made a brand new summit sign!
Day 2, we were on the trail again by 8 am tagging Alto Diablo Peak, Charlton Peak, Little Charlton Peak, Jepson Peak, and finally Mount San Gorgonio. We dumped our packs at the junction .25 mile before the summit. The weather on San G was absolutely perfect. It wasn't too crowded and we bumped into some familiar friendly faces. After relaxing at the peak for a bit we finally made our way back down toward South Fork. Due to all the snow the San Gorgonio Mountains received last winter we came across a few snow patches that still exist on the way down the South Fork Trail. All are pretty manageable to crossover, some we crossed directly over and others we had to go up and around completely avoiding it, so please use your best judgement.
On the way down we passed Dry Lake, which last year lived up to it's name, but as of now Dry Lake is actually a lake! If there is one place in SoCal that reminds me of the Sierra Nevadas it's Dry Lake. Enjoy it now before it's gone, it's already starting to recede. About 1.5 miles past Dry Lake we came across our second water source, an ice cold gushing stream where we soaked our feet and took a bird bath, which was totally worth it. From here we hiked another 3 miles to the South Fork Trailhead to meet with our staged cars to take some of us back to the Forsee Creek Trailhead.
Thanks to everyone who came out! It was such a fun weekend and I'm really excited to share this vlog with you all. Until next year...Happy Trails!
#FTHLA
Music: www.HookSounds.com

[@adventureawaits5003]

Awesome video

[@lembarbumi577]

so beautiful 👍