Tips from Your Ambassador:
1. There are two main trails: Vivian Creek, which is shorter at 17 miles, but gains more in elevation and South Fork Trailhead, which is longer at 22 miles, but the elevation gain is shorter. Both are long, hard day hikes. Backpacking is preferred for either.
2. No day hiking permits for San Gorgonio, but backpacking overnight permits are required.
3. On the South Fork Trailhead, there is only a couple of creeks about 3 miles from the parking lot for water. So bring lots of water or filter at the creeks.
4. Note that hiking San Gorgonio will always require some sort of sacrifice. Two years ago, it was my arm that I broke on a fall 4 miles from the end. Last year, I met someone on the way down who couldn’t walk and I drove him home.

With this being the year of doing things differently, I decided to try another way of doing San Gorgonio via the South Fork Trail, which is past Angelus Oaks. I got backpacking permits because some of my group members were concerned about the mileage. This hike is beautiful and still recovering from the fire a couple of years ago. The only water source though was the creek 3 miles in. We camped at Dry Lake/Lodgepool Springs. The trail last 5 miles is a series of 11 switchbacks which connect to the Vivian Creek trail at the peak. This trail had fewer people and we didn’t see a lot of people until the peak. Again, it was abnormally hot and exposed, so make sure to prepare for that. It was a beautiful weekend out on the trails. All 12 of my dayhikers and backpackers finished, but all of us would say that this was a long and hard day!