A Mythical Beast, a Real Animal, and the Highest Point in Southern California

I led a very successful backpacking trip in the local mountains last weekend. I made some mistakes, but I learned from them, and hopefully it will make me a better leader for future trips. We had a convivial group, and that made a big difference. If you want to go straight for the photos, they're here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11116786@N03/sets/72157620753734138/

Leader: Sharon Moore

Co-leader: Bruce Michaels

Participants: Roshawn Bowers, John Cederberg, Peter Ireland, Dave Levine, Cheryl McMurray, Asamanja Mallik, Elaine Shaw, Robert Wallsgrove

Trooper Award: Elaine "Big E" Shaw -always had a cheerful smile, even though she felt awful

Class Clown: John "99 Cents" Cederberg

Ultralight Award: Peter "20 Pounds" Ireland

Congeniality Award: Everyone!

Saturday got off to a rough start. Diana Rankin called at 4:45 AM to say she couldn't come. She had food poisoning. Ugh! I couldn't blame her, and we were both disappointed. So our carpool was down to two. Dave Levine picked me up, and we stopped to grab a quick breakfast at Starbucks. Turkey bacon, mozarella, and egg sandwich on wheat ciabatta turned out to be an expensive but healthier alternative to an Egg McMuffin. Not bad!

The group gathered at the trailhead. The day was warming up already, but fortunately we were only 15 minutes late out of the gate. I always forget how dang far it is to the start of the trail from the parking lot: half a mile up a rough road, then across Mill Creek. Then the fun part starts: almost a mile of steep switchbacks, which are no fun even with just a daypack. We got up them, though. Then the really beautiful part of the trail starts. It was an enjoyable hike after that, but I ran out of water as we hit camp. I should have filtered water immediately. I suffered a bout of altitude sickness that night, which rendered me incapable of enjoying happy hour or eating dinner. High Creek is in a gully just off the Vivian Creek Trail at about 9500', before you cross the creek and head up a long set of switchbacks. I don't normally get sick at that elevation, but I hadn't had a decent night's sleep for a week, and setting up my tent in the hot sun got me dehydrated. But after going to bed early, emptying my stomach (after the initial nap), nursing my way through most of a 2-liter Platypus, and a dose of Diamox, I recovered fully by morning. I was able to lead the peaks on Sunday, and we got em all!

Following Sherry Ross's route advice for Dragon's Head, we hiked up the trail to a specific elevation, then traversed around a gully, dropping only a small amount until reaching an easy crossing point to where we could head up another gully that leads to the saddle below Dragon's Head peak. My mistake here was to get impatient and start heading up before we reached the saddle. Rather hair raising! We eventually found the use trail to the summit, which made descending very easy. If I do that peak again, I'll use the standard route and call it a pathfinder. : ) The route to Bighorn was easy to find. It was mostly a duck hunt (for you non-hikers, ducks are rocks or small cairns place in obvious locations to mark a route. Mars Bonfire, maybe? His name was in the register for June 24, noting his 15th ascent. That name might be familiar to any Steppenwolf fans out there. Yes, he's that Mars Bonfire. We reached the summit right in time for lunch. The route I had chosen to Gorgonio looked very intimidating from the top of Bighorn, but it turned out to be very doable. I huffed and puffed up the gully, feeling my lack of dinner. Most of the group was huffing and puffing behind me. It intersected the Mine Shaft Saddle Trail about 2/3 of the way up, so we stopped there briefly to catch our breath before the final haul to the summit of San G. We reached it at about 2:15 PM. Clouds had drifted in, but this was a relief after the bright morning. We all enjoyed a round of summit euphoria, signing the register, getting a group shot taken, and digging into our remaining snacks. We returned to camp via the trail to relax, have dinner, and turn in early.

We broke camp Monday morning. I have a new tent, and although I practiced setting it up at home, it looks like I'll need to practice stowing it, too. But I eventually got all my act together, and everyone else was waiting patiently, so we departed around 8:20 AM. The hike out took under three hours. We had partly cloudy skies, and slightly higher humidity. We ran into Diana on the trail right after crossing Vivian Creek. She decided to head in solo and camp at High Creek, then do Gorgonio Tuesday and hike out. She's preparing for an upcoming trip, and I hope the weather held for her (it looked and felt a little tropical out there...). We were out before noon, and most of us met in Redlands for lunch at Chipotle for a final trip post-mortem and farewells. Now all that remains are photo links to exchange, and some great memories for all of us.

Weekend stats, thanks to Cheryl McMurray's GPS:

Trailhead to High Creek Camp: 5.67 mi. 3347 ft. elevation gain
Day Hike: 8.3 mi 2920 ft. elevation gain
Camp to Trailhead: 5.67 mi.
Total 19.64 mi. 6267 ft. elevation gain

Peaks:

Dragon's Head: 10,866 ft.

Bighorn: 10,997 ft.

San Gorgonio: officially 11,499 ft., latest GPS measurements 11,501.6 ft.