Sally and I started up Vivian about 6 AM. We crossed the creek, then headed up the ridge to Dobbs. As we gained the ridge, we saw alpineglow on the San Gorgonio ridge. After reaching Dobbs, we dropped down into the gulley, then headed up the side to meet the trail. Won't be doing this again -- the descent off the ridge was quite steep with unstable footing. Plus, you drop 300 feet which you have to regain. Next time, we'll do what we usually do -- stay on the Dobbs ridge until it meets the San Gorgonio ridge.
After the steep ascent, the trail up to San Gorgonio felt relatively flat. Neither Sally nor I have been above 8.5 K since the High Sierra Trail and were happy that the altitude presented no problems. From the Vivian junction sign, it got breezy and actually felt like fall. We met Bill and Sam on the summit (two really nice firemen). Some bozo left a large broken mirror under the register box
In addition, the box was full of trash. It was impossible to sign in. We shared our pistachios with a particularly tame field squirrel/chipmunk before heading down.
Descending the swtichbacks into High Creek, we met several people who asked us if they were close to the summit. As it was after 1 PM, I recommended that they go to the nice outlook at the top of the switchbacks, then turn around and head back down. The descent to Halfway camp seemed to take forever, but at least I wasn't getting attacked by mosquitoes and biting flies. We survived the final nose-bleed drop into Mill Creek and had a great dinner at El Mexicano before heading home.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
AKA Cactus Ass
Ugh. Kind of interesting flatish area down in there though.
