2020 San Gorgonio Peak

Well, this was it, my last one! San Gorgonio was Peak #18 and it was great to end on the tallest on in the Challenge. The weather was great and I got an early start, setting off at about 6:15 most of the people I saw on the trail early were folks who had camped last night and were heading back in. I arrived at the summit at 12:14 and it wasn’t busy at all, I ran into two folks I’d met on Monday when I did San Jacinto, they had come up the Vivian Creek Trail and were just heading down from the summit as I arrived. There were 3 hikers working on a 50-mile trip that came up to sign the register and then I met up with Erica (another challenger) and her friend Mark, they did the Dry Lake/Dollar Lake Loop, so we hiked together back down the Dollar Lake trail – it was great to meet them and it was nice to have company on the descent.

The trip itself went well, the hike to the Dry Lake/Dollar Lake split off was pretty mellow, but the gain picked up from there up to Dollar Lake Saddle. I felt like there was another reprieve on the climbing working around the Charlton and Jepson Peaks, and even though I’d read many reports about it, I did get sucked into the false summits on this one LOL, but it was all good. The views were simply amazing.

I ended up spending a couple of hours on the summit, taking pictures, having lunch, visiting, and just soaking in the views.

I never expected that I would complete all 18 peaks when I started this, I figured getting the San Diego Six was going to be it (they’re all close to home), but I was bitten by the bug 😉 and it’s certainly been a fun journey!