When I first moved to the San Bernardino National Forest Sixers ago, and hiked the Vivian Trail, I was so impressed by folks who were summiting San Gorgonio. At that time, it was a dream, and felt so out of reach to do it myself, and I thought how cool some it would be to do that. On Sunday, I submitted San G for the first time. I am so proud and excited to have done this and make this dream a reality.

From the Vivian Creek Trailhead it was 9 1/2 miles up. We heard a mountain line when it was still dark out, but didn’t see it. The sunrise was beautiful with pink and yellow clouds. And as we got higher, it was really awesome to be able to identify local landmarks, other peaks, and to see the Apple fire scar from the backside of the drop off up close.

On this hike, it was the first hike that I really felt the elevation gain. I got a little nauseous and a little dizzy. But ironically, the best thing was to just keep putting 1 foot in front of the other. With the friends I was hiking with, we all had a similar experience with feeling the altitude and the thin air.

In character with me as a hiker, for the final stretch, the adrenaline kicked in, and the hype was there cheering myself and my crew on as we submitted to the top.

We took a nice long break to sit and eat some food while we waited for the other folks from our crew. Definitely what I needed. And we were even able to celebrate Gonzalo’s birthday.

I love the hiking community so much as everyone I met at the summit, and this has been true on every hike, has just been so nice and fun. Makes me really grateful to be a part of this community and the sport.

Hiking San Gorgonio is the longest hike I have ever done at one time. After doing it, even though I was physically exhausted with no gas left in the tank, I want to make this an annual tradition to hike San G once a year.

One thing to be aware of on this trail is in the San Gorgonio Wilderness along the creeks, there is a lot of poison oak growing that is overgrown. So just a good thing to be mindful of. There was no snow on the trail. In the final a couple miles to the summit because it’s in direct sunlight and Sandy/Rocky. It actually felt a little warm. Started at 5 AM and got back to my truck at 4:15 PM.