San Bernardino Peak Trail
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:42 pmHowdy All,
Lance and I started hiking about 5:45 AM. We parked across the street by the store. I have never seen this much snow at the trailhead parking area. We headed up the trail and before long left the "trail" and went up the side of the ridge to the big, sweeping switchback we call "Bug Alley 1" in the summer. We stayed on the trail until we passed the wilderness boundary sign and then headed up again to the second sweeping switchback we call "Bug Alley 2." Based on the time it took us to get to the sign, it was pretty clear that we would be lucky to even reach Manzanita flats. The second climb up the side of the ridge was much steeper -- I was in four wheel drive following Lance's footsteps. It took us three hours to reach the forest -- it normally takes us one hour. We took a fuel break and continued on. About 30 minutes later we'd had enough and started back down. As Kathy noted, it was beautiful and the views of the surrounding ridges and Baldy were tremendrous. Coming down the ridge after existing the forest was a bit unnerving due to the gradient on the slope. We went down sideways one step at a time. The snow softened and the downhill traverse to get back to the sign was work, even with snowshoes. Once we reached "Bug Alley 1," we followed our footsteps down. Lance noted wryly that our path appeared to have been made by two drunk mules. The second gradient was not as steep and I was able to enjoy the descent and glissade a bit in the snowshoes. All in all a great day but I don't think I've ever worked so hard to gain 2,500 ft.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
A peak at San Bernardino peak:
[img]
[img][img]http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/7213/000dscn3277.jpg[/img][/img]
Lance and I started hiking about 5:45 AM. We parked across the street by the store. I have never seen this much snow at the trailhead parking area. We headed up the trail and before long left the "trail" and went up the side of the ridge to the big, sweeping switchback we call "Bug Alley 1" in the summer. We stayed on the trail until we passed the wilderness boundary sign and then headed up again to the second sweeping switchback we call "Bug Alley 2." Based on the time it took us to get to the sign, it was pretty clear that we would be lucky to even reach Manzanita flats. The second climb up the side of the ridge was much steeper -- I was in four wheel drive following Lance's footsteps. It took us three hours to reach the forest -- it normally takes us one hour. We took a fuel break and continued on. About 30 minutes later we'd had enough and started back down. As Kathy noted, it was beautiful and the views of the surrounding ridges and Baldy were tremendrous. Coming down the ridge after existing the forest was a bit unnerving due to the gradient on the slope. We went down sideways one step at a time. The snow softened and the downhill traverse to get back to the sign was work, even with snowshoes. Once we reached "Bug Alley 1," we followed our footsteps down. Lance noted wryly that our path appeared to have been made by two drunk mules. The second gradient was not as steep and I was able to enjoy the descent and glissade a bit in the snowshoes. All in all a great day but I don't think I've ever worked so hard to gain 2,500 ft.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
A peak at San Bernardino peak:
[img]
[img][img]http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/7213/000dscn3277.jpg[/img][/img]