Has anyone ever found the 4700' I supposedly lost?
On Sunday, July 27, 2025 I hiked to San Gorgonio - the highest point in Southern California and the San Bernardino County highpoint - via the South Fork Trail. It's a nicely-maintained trail, but it's interminable. It's 19+ miles RT with about 4700' of gain. Compare the Mt Baldy Ski Hut trail: it gains almost 4000' in about 8 miles RT. Spreading the gain out makes it harder, at least for me.
Going up, I would have said the trail had three parts: a smooth two or three mile intro, then a few miles where it gets steeper and rockier, and then an endless three miles to the peak, complete with false summits.
On the way back, I would have had slightly different parts: the first few miles down from the summit seemed to have lots of mild uphill sections, then there was the somewhat steep and rocky part, followed by about five miles where I would have sworn I was going uphill.
So, if you're prepared for that, the summit is worth it. Yes, there were a lot of people there and, unlike many other summits, I had trouble taking a video without them in it, but it was a friendly group. There was a Forest Service volunteer checking permits up top.
On the way up and back I picked up several pieces of weird trash, mainly small snippets of packaging. Unfortunately, someone threw away a couple of tissues and even a whole package of them. I wasn't exactly keen on picking up someone else's tissue package, but needs must. And, when I got back, someone had left a trash can open.
I'd spent the night before sleeping in my car at the trailhead. I half expected bear trouble but they didn't pay a visit that I heard.
This is actually the longest hike I've done by maybe two or three miles. My legs were tired a bit on Monday but the main tiredness was in my feet. On Tuesday my legs and feet were OK but I had mild shin splints. Also, the return was assisted with 16oz of an energy drink, and it was worth the weight for both the boost and so I didn't have to go down to Dollar Lake to fetch a bag of water. I didn't verify that there's water there, but two parties told me that, while the lake was dry, there was some sort of stream that could be filtered. That, of course, might change. In addition to the energy drink I had 2L of water with electrolytes, then I drank another 2L on the drive back. I was able to make the summit and the return on that plus half a package of pepperoni and maybe a quarter of a pouch of peanut butter. You might want to splurge more.
