August 16th, 1997:  We began this trip the same way we begin MOST of our trips, Marc gets off work Friday night, then pickes me and my gear up. Because we are NOT rich, or have plenty of free time, this is a plain 'ole weekend trip. We arrived at the San Gorgonio Wilderness around 10pm and drive right to the trailhead. Marc has a pickup truck which is convenient because we can sleep in the back, so that we can get up as early as possible and get a good start. We thought we were all set for the night, but of course we denied our restful, and much needed sleep.  There were a bunch of kids/young adults drinking beer and having fun. While I have no problem with this, I DO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH LOUD NOISE AFTER 10pm!!! To kill time, and get away from the noisy people, we did a little night hiking right around the trailhead. This was fun, but a little frustrating because we were NOT sure exactly where the vivian Creek Trailhead started. This was probably difficult because it was dark. We finally gave up searching and told ourselves that in the morning we would find the trailhead easily.  We got back to the truck and went to sleep.  Well, actually Marc slept like a baby, (BTW, Marc could sleep on a bed-of-nails, while on fire, BUT that's another story) While I (Chris) COULD NOT GET TO SLEEP AT ALL (as usual).  Beside all the normal reasons why I could NOT sleep, I stayed awake because I was hoping to get a look at the Perseid Meteor Shower that was supposed to be happen that night.  I only saw 3 or 4 shooting start, and was very annoyed.  Eventually I gave up and fell asleep, and I'm sure I got a good 30 minute rest.  Because I really didn't sleep, we were able to get up early and ACTUALLY start our backpacking trip around 6:30am.  Trust me, that is an early start for us!  It really felt GOOD to start early, in the cool air.  Another bonus that came with our early start was that the pictures really turned out great.  We left the parking area and started our hike along vivian Creek.  After about x.x miles we saw the sign that told us to cross the river and begin the "real" hike.  Crossing the river, which was pretty much dry, was a challenge in itself because you had to be careful not to break your ankle on one of the river rocks.  After crossing the river we saw a sign telling hikers that a permit is REQUIRED to hike in the wilderness.  We of course had an overnight permit which we sent away for a few weeks before.  The trail now began to climb, and man did it climb.  It was steep.  Steep I tell you.  Marc didn't really complain about the steepness of the trail because he is in GREAT shape, but I was hurting.  I knew that we would have to gain around xxxx feet, but I was hoping it would be gradual.  It wasn't.  We overheard a day hiker telling his companion that the steepness of this section of the trial is approximately 1000 ft/mile.  Great (I thought).  I'm going to have a heart attack during the first half mile.  You really gain a lot of elevation at the beginning of the vivian Creek Trail, which allowed us to see a lot of great views pretty quickly.  Finally after about x.x miles we were over the "hump" and things began to level off a bit (at least for the time being).   "Wasn't that FUN!!!", Marc said.  I grumbled, cursed his mother, called him a rat-bastard, but kept going. After about x.x miles of hiking we got to the vivian Creek Trailcamp.  This gave of an indication of how far we were along on the trail and the speed at which we were traveling.  We were not setting any kind of speed records, but we were making good progress.  We continued on, and I was very happy that the trial became LESS steep.  But I knew that I was in for some more pain later.  By now, Marc's heartrate was pushing the high 70's, and I think I even saw him take a breath of air, but I'm not 100% sure.   XXXXX  As we began this part of the hike, Marc took out his trusty topographical map and NEW, declination pre-adjusted compass, and tried to get a bearing as to exactly where we were on the trail.  When he couldn't tell for sur, where we were, I offered to help. He gave me the map and I was able to find our location EXACTLY, within 10 seconds. Marc was sooooo amazed by my map reading skills that he offered to buy me one of those classy $40 whores he's been telling me about for the last 10 years!!!  <grin>  I'm tired, as you can tell by the last few sentences......I'll edit/continue later.....!!!!!