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| San Gorgonio via South Fork, CA | |
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| | San Gorgonio via South Fork, CA | | | |
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San Gorgonio via South Fork, CA
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| Hiking | 20.75 Miles |
4,775 AEG |
| | Hiking | 20.75 Miles | 8 Hrs 46 Mns | | 2.71 mph |
| 4,775 ft AEG | 1 Hour 6 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Chumley and I were looking for a Labor Day Weekend plan and were originally going to go to Taos to hike Wheeler but the forecast looked ominous, so we looked for a backup option and Chumley came up with SoCal. This turned out to be fantastic!
We drove up on Friday afternoon and arrived around 6pm in a dispersed camping area. We were expecting heavy crowds but were surprised to find plenty of quality camp options that weren’t right on top of neighbors. We set up and had a relaxed evening around the propane fire pit. During the night, I was awakened by some critter messing with our garbage bag we left out. It had some packaging from our dinners, and I figured a racoon was messing with it. As I got out of my sleeping bag I saw a light from Chumley’s tent and heard him say “BEAR”! It immediately ran off and I thought, hey there are bears out here haha. It didn’t bother us again.
We woke fairly early on Saturday and headed to the trailhead, which was ten minutes away, and were on trail around 7:20am. The trail starts with a respectable climb as we headed in what was once a beautiful forest but has since burned. This would be the one constant throughout the day. We came to a meadow roughly 1.5 miles in where a couple of old cabins remain. This would be a nice place to backpack if it wasn’t so close to the trailhead. We would continue hiking as the trail climbs and weaves its way towards Gorgonio. The peak would come into view a couple miles in and looked like an eternity away.
At some point we hit a trail junction and this is where we headed to the right. We would return on the trail to the left much later in the day. From here the trail makes large switchbacks as it heads up. Most of this section is exposed to sun and again it would have been amazing before it burned. We continued on and came to a saddle where a group of people were taking a break. We would continue as the trail keeps climbing and you start to feel the elevation. We eventually got above tree line and our pace slowed as we got above 10K ft. The going was slow but with much effort we topped out on the summit around 11:20am. There were a handful of people up top and the views were just amazing! The peak tops out at 11,500ft. We would take an extended break and then start our descent.
We were doing a lasso loop and the plan was to do a short section of off trail to cut off a portion of the hike and this worked out well. It was fairly straightforward and we connected onto trail and were on our way. The next few hours blurred by as we headed down the backside of the mountain and saw very few people. At some point we came upon a plane crash from the 1950’s. It was eerie seeing the crash site, something we had no idea was here. We would continue hiking and kept dropping and eventually came to Dry Lake. As we approached we could see the lake bed was a grassy meadow and there was a large brown mass in the middle. I kept looking at it and Chumley paid it no mind. I eventually said I think that’s a bear. After a moment it started to move and sure enough it was a bear! We traversed around the outskirts of the dry lake bed and the bear was aware of us but kept foraging.
The rest of the hike was uneventful. We would take a break near the junction we passed early. I filtered a liter of water and could feel how tired my legs were. We eventually got up and continued the last few miles out. We got lucky and had some cloud cover and this helped a lot. This last section was fairly monotonous but we cruised back and before long we arrived back at the trailhead and the end of our hike.
San Gorgonio was a fantastic peak and we commented on how it’s one of the best day hikes we’ve done in recent memory. I would highly recommend checking it out! It’s worth the effort. Note you need a permit but it’s free and fairly easy to get online. |
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