San Bernardino Mountain Traverse, California, USA: San Gorgonio Wilderness

June 12, 2004

Brief report:

After hiking steadily for 19 hrs and almost 37 miles later (from Angelus Oaks to San Gorgonio's summit and back to Angelus Oaks), I bagged all of the 9 peaks in the San Bernardino Mountain Traverse in a day. The last 8 miles were excruciatingly difficult as I was quite dehydrated. Both my legs and back wanted to cramp. I developed several feet blisters and in the last few miles I felt dizzy, almost stumbling down the trail at times (mainly from exhaustion/dehydration). Anyway, for those who want to suffer, this is how my day went:

I left my house in Los Angeles at 2:30am Saturday June 12th and arrived at the Angelus Oaks (a.k.a. San Bernardino Peak) trailhead just after 4:00am.

• 4:20am: I started the hike from Angelus Oaks (5960', 0 miles).
• 8:52am: bagged San Bernardino Peak (10,649').
• 9:38am: bagged San Bernardino East Peak (10,691').
• 10:18am: bagged Anderson Peak (10,864').
• 10:54am: bagged Shields Peak (10,680').
• 11:26am: bagged Alto Diablo Peak (10,563').
• 12:55pm: bagged Charlton Peak (10,806').
• 1:14pm: bagged Little Charlton Peak (10,696').
• 2:04pm: bagged Jepson Peak (11,205').
• 2:47pm: bagged San Gorgonio (11,499', 18.3 miles).
• 3:15pm: I left San Gorgonio's summit.
• 11:13pm: I arrived at Angelus Oaks trailhead (36.6 miles later).

Out of all the 9 peaks, I truly enjoyed the views from Shields Peak.

Additional info about climbing the 9 Peaks can be found here.