This was my first time to summit San G and I was invited to do it as a three day, two night backpack trip. Ok, I can do this. What I didnt know, or I should say, what I didnt thoroughly investigate, was the length of the trek to camp. We set out to hike to Red Rock Flat, which was an 8 mile hike with a gain of about 3200′. Normally, a decent challenge. With a way too heavy 39 lb pack-was a torture fest. It was a hard hike. I took it slow and had my friend Misty with me. It took us nearly 8 hours to get there, included lunch break time. The trail was beautiful as always, and I ventured the dollar lake side for the first time. There wasnt a cloud in the sky, flowers were blooming, the trail was fairly quiet. It was great. As the hours wore on, I started to get really tired. I cried as we got towards camp, I really didnt think I was going to make it. I did. We were later joined by the rest of our group and we camped for the night.

The trek to the summit of San G the next morning as not too bad (anything was better than the hike to camp!!) It was a 10 mile total hike, the trail up to the convergence with Vivian Creek was nearly empty. The hike was beautiful.  I saw some friends on the trail. There were tons of people at the summit-tons! It was a party up there. We chatted up with some people, ate lunch and went back to camp.

The next morning, we all had breakfast, packed up and departed one by one out. I stayed behind and waited for Misty so we could descend together. I'm glad I did. She started to get sick from the altitude, threw up and couldnt get up. I helped her the best I could, but all we could do was wait. I found a couple of backpackers and they helped her out a little bit as they had some meds we didnt have. We waited it out for a couple of hours and then packed her stuff up and down the mountain we went. The descent was slow and we made a few stops…but we got down the mountain. That was a scary experience-but it reminded me to keep my cool, make sure I'm prepared and never to leave your hiking partner behind.

This was the hardest hike I've ever done. In all, with side trips to explore and get water, we did 30 miles in 3 days. Yes, it was hard. And it was worth every minute.