We started this hike at MIDNIGHT, yes, you heard right, midnight on June 10, 2018. I drove to the trailhead to try to catch some zzzzs before the hike but to no avail. There were some local rabble in the Vivian Creek parking lots barbecuing, playing loud music, and walking throughout the parking lot which made sleeping impossible. Mind you I was sardined into the back of my Scion xD which may have played a minor role too. Ha! Anyway like Cinderella, the stroke of midnight drew me from my sardined position and called me to the trails to attempt to climb the highest mountain in So Cal. We headed up the Vivian Creek trail, which by the way was horrible in my estimation, those crazy steep switchbacks IN THE DARK were no joke! I personally struggled so much that I wanted to quit by the time we had reached 3 miles in. I seriously considered giving up. Had it not been 3:00 AM when these thoughts began to cross my mind, I probably would have willingly turned back even on my own. I don't consider myself a quitter but this trail pushed every limit to the utmost. Luckily, the wonderful women in our group didn't let me quit. They were patient and motivating. As the early morning went on, I really wasn't sure I was going to make it to dawn. My eyes started playing weird tricks on me. I started to stumble and trip on rocks and all I could think of was how much further we had to go and how tired and exhausted I already was. Summiting seemed impossible at this point. My saving grace was the sun! Thank you Jesus for sunrise! There could not have been a more wonderful sight than the sun peaking out beginning to glow from behind the high slopes of the mountains. The sun was my salvation – I say that in all sincerity with no hyperbolic quality. Once the sun was up, I got so much more confident and felt so much better. The light gave me the ability to go on. We reached High Creek Camp, rested, ate, and then began to freeze in the early morning air. I was shivering so much I couldn't sleep, but the halt in movement was a welcomed change nonetheless. We finally reached the ridge just before the final ascent at 9:30. It seemed like we were making pretty decent time, but then the ferocity of the sun's heat made it's presence known and I was done for. An interesting fact about me – I HATE hiking in the sun. Give me the cold ANY day. Once that sun, that I was hopelessly longing for in the middle of the night, came out, it impeded my progress immensely. I felt like an ant getting burned by some greater being with a magnifying glass trying to burn me and prevent me from reaching the summit. It really was horrible. I took off layers, tried to get more comfortable, layered my face with sunblock and sprayed by arms and back with sunblock, and hydrated continuously along the way, but the discomfort of my seemingly 50 lb pack coupled with my somewhat defeated spirit, made those last miles even more brutal than the first. At this point, there was no where to hide from the sun. The last two miles to San G are completely exposed with the exception of some small patchy spines every now and again and some large boulders that make great seats for when you want to collapse in despair. The sandy patches in the extremely thin trail didn't help either. I could feel my feet sinking in to the sand with every step and with every step when you normally think you're making great progress, in this case I didn't. I could only continue to see the revelation of more seemingly ENDLESS trail wrapping not just around the corner to the next bend but up the ridge to the summit. I could see tiny little colorful ant like images moving slowly up the summit. When I saw this, I didn't even want to continue. It was so mentally defeating in the worst way. So close, and yet, SO FAR. When I finally made it to the summit at 1:15 PM, just modestly shy of our goal of 11:00 AM (LOL! That's a joke! btw!), I just wanted to eat. I didn't even care about my traditional fixation with summit pics. There were even some awesome snow patches left at the summit but again, exhaustion and dehydration prevented any of us from seeking out a potential snow ball fight in the San G snow. Too bad, it could have been fun. We did take a pretty epic GWHLA group photo and individual summit victory pics and then we had to quickly pack it up to get the heck off San G before sundown. Originally, we had planned to be back to the car by 4:00 or 5:00. At this point, that was NOT going to happen. We made the best of a bad situation and we just started booking it down the hill as fast as we could. My feet hurt so incredibly bad, but the prospect of eating a cheeseburger and fries from Baker's back in Redlands on the way home somehow filled me with this incredible sense of motivation to get the hell out of dodge. We averaged about 2 miles a hour which was significantly better than our ascent. (Ha ha ha!) We made it back to the parking lot at 8:35 just shy of sun down. When it was all said and done, it took us nearly 20 hours to complete this hike but it really was about the journey and not the timing. The fact that an overweight, out of shape, asthmatic high school English teacher summited San Gorgonio on NO SLEEP for 36 hours starting in the middle of the night even made it out alive at all is what matters most to me. I cried at mile 3 when I wanted to give up so bad, but standing on top of that mountain as the tallest entity in Southern California was what made all the pain, suffering, frustration, and sleep deprivation worth it.