Category Archives: Trail Reports

Mount. San Gorgonio, San Bernardino National Forest, California

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We backpacked Mt San Gorgonio last weekend with Dakota. It was her first backpacking trip and she finished the entire trip like a champ!
Louis, Peter and I left Saturday morning at 5AM, Mt. San Gorgonio is located near Redlands by the 215 and 15 freeway. It is within the San Bernardino National Forest so dogs are allowed on trail. A permit is required for overnight camping, we had to fax in the permit to the ranger’s station 5 days before the hike. We arrived at the ranger’s station at 8AM and picked up our permit. The drive from the ranger’s station to the camp site is about 30 miles. From Hwy 38, make a right into Fish Creek Campground, the roads are rocky, high clearance vehicle is recommended, however, we made it in okay with our Mazda Protege.
The elevation at Fish Creek is 8160 feet, Louis is prone to altitude changes so he took the hike slow with Dakota. From the parking lot to Fish Creek campground is 2.6 miles. Water is abundant first week of August within the first 2.6 miles, the hike was easy and the weather was perfect, it took us 1 hour to get to the first camp ground. Half a mile from Fish Creek campground to Fish Creek Saddle is the last water supply before Fish Creek Saddle. We filled up our water packs full and set out for Fish Creek Saddle. The hike from Fish Creek campground to Fish Creek Saddle was 2.3miles but the altitude gain was tremendous and it felt like a very difficult hike since most of the trails were exposed to sun.
Dakota hiking behind Peter on the way to Fish Creek Saddle campground
We got to Fish Creek Saddle campground around 1:30PM, the next nearest water is on the way to dry lake and the water source looked murky and filled with algae from far away. We decided we had enough water between the three of us to climb Mt San G, and opted not to refill at the lake.

Dakota chilling at the campground before we set out for the Mt San Gorgonio climb

On to way to the peak
The beginning of switch backs and climb, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

Perfect weather, breezy 70 degrees.

Rain clouds moving in
On our way to the peak we spotted the1950s military cargo plane crash site. The cost of salvaging the plane was too much, the debris’ been left here at the crash site since the incident.

The last half a mile of the hike was tough, the switch backs seemed never ending. Make sure to go right for the peak and follow the sign.

Peak photo. It was 6.5 miles from Fish Creek Saddle to the peak at 11502 feet above mean sea level. Near the top, I definitely felt the altitude and had trouble breathing. We had to slow down our pace considerable. Dakota was too preoccupied by chipmunks to take a good group photo.

Louis proposed at the top! He was suffering from a mild case of altitude sickness. The speech he had prepared went out the window and he got straight to the point. 🙂

Dakota with her backpack ready to explore the woods
Dakota at the top of Mt San Gorgonio
By the time we got back to our camp site at Fish Creek Saddle it was 7:30PM. It took us 5 hours to hike 13 miles up to the peak, not too shabby. We went to sleep and woke up next morning at 6AM. Because we are running low on water at this point, we skipped breakfast and decided to hike down to Fish Creek camp and refill. The hike down to Fish Creek camp took much less effort and we were out to the parking lot within 2 hours.

Once last family photo before the parking lot.

Sawtooth Pass – Mineral King, California

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Louis and I spent 4 days backpacking through the southern portion of the Sequoia National Park during the 2011 labor day weekend.

The entire trail loop is approximately 29 miles and elevation was about 11,000 ft above sea level. For those of you that are prone to altitude sickness, I would strongly recommend spending the night at the Cold Spring Campground near the ranger’s station to get acclimated to the elevation before hiking. We drove up to the trail head from Orange County the morning of the hike, the last 25 miles to trail head on Mineral Kings road is mostly unpaved and bumpy. The driving conditions got pretty brutal, it took us 1.5-2 hours to arrive at the ranger’s station. I would not recommend driving this road at night.

Day 1: Monarch Lakes

We arrived at trail head at 7AM in the morning waiting for the ranger’s office to open. Even though we made reservations for our permit, we still had to be at the ranger’s office when they opened to receive our permit. The rangers start giving away the permits to others without reservations. We drove to a designated parking lot once we received our permits. Marmots are prevalent around the area, we’ve heard horror stories of these animals climbing under the car and having a field day chewing on car wires. I was a little worried about my Protege, but in the end the Marmots stayed away. Below is a photo of us at the parking lot getting ready for our hike to Monarch Lakes. The elevation at the trail head was about 7800 feet.
Our destination for day 1 was to reach Monarch Lakes. It was a relatively easy and uneventful hike, but it gave us ample amount of time to get use to the elevation prior to our Sawtooth peak climb. The photo below is the lower Monarch Lakes, because it was a holiday weekend, many of the camp grounds at the lower lake were already taken. We decided to drop our packs and scramble to the top and were rewarded a much nicer and secluded upper Monarch Lake.
Photo below is the view of the upper Monarch Lake from inside our tent. The lake was filled with tiny fishes, Louis attempted at fishing but was not able to catch one large enough for us to eat. We spent the rest of the day starring enviously at the fishes in the lake while eating our tasteless dry foods.

Day 2: Sawtooth Pass and Columbine Lakes

We rose early the next day and began our ascent to Sawtooth Pass. Below is the view from the valley on the way to the Sawtooth Pass ascend, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into…

Climbing to the top of Sawtooth Pass was brutal. Every step we took going up the pass, the lose sand brought us back two steps.

After what felt like hours of climbing, we reached the top. The lake below is one of the first Columbine Lakes. We are escatic to reach the top.

View from Sawtooth

We found a secluded cove in the midst of the lakes and set up camp for night 2 and 3.

Our next door neighbor getting ready for winter. Look at how fat the Marmot is!!!
Louis attempting to fish again at Columbine Lake. No luck, again.

Day 3: Day Hike to Big Five Lakes

We decided to stay at Columbine Lake one more night and took a day hike to the Big Five Lakes the next day.

We arrived at the first of the Big Five Lakes around lunch time. Had lunch by the lake and then headed back to campground at Columbine Lake.

Day 4: Returning to Trail Head from Columbine Lake 

One our way back to the trail head, we decided to take a photo after descending from the Sawtooth Pass. Next time, we hope to complete the other half of the loop.