Deja Vu (you'll see why)

Kris said it was my idea but I don't really remember because it had been so long and the date changed so many times. Needless to say I actually convinced 4 of my co-workers to go hiking with me. I haven't had that many co-workers come to one of my "day's of insanity" since '99 when we went skydiving.

Back several weeks, or even month's, I and/or Kris decided to hike the Vivian Creek Trail. Kris has been up Baldy with me a few times so it was time to show him a bigger mountain. For what ever reason, we ended up with April 13 as the date. As usual, I try to plan for a full moon during longer hikes just in case we end up in the dark. For some reason the date always gets switched to a night with no moon. The same applied in this case. After the date was set, I sent out an open invite to several people at Quest and elsewhere. Moody joined in as usual and so did Amy and Laura. Laura is new to Quest but has hiked, Amy has been at Quest for 3 years and has never been on a mountain. She was one of the people involded in Quest Extreme Challenge I, skydiving at Lake Peris in 1999. Despite jumping backwards out of an airplane at 120 mph 12,000 feet off the ground last time she did anything with me, she decided to go anyway. I faxed in the permit and we were ready to go.

At 5:00 AM, Amy, Kris, and Moody met at my place. We then drove to Corona and picked up Laura. After another hour of uneventful driving, minus a wrong turn, we were at the trailhead. We loaded up and headed out just before 7 AM.

The weather was great. A few people that work at Quest and normally go hiking decided not to go thinking it would be cold. It was sunny and in the 60's most of the day. It was great. They missed out.

If you ever hike the Vivian Creek trail, one of the first things you do is cross the riverbed. It's fine in day light but try finding the trail on the other side at night.

The Vivian Creek trail is great. The hard part is right at the beginning up to Vivian Creek camp. After that, the trial is easy to moderate but long. The suroundings change often so you don't get too bored. You can always find something interesting like these tatooed freaks that live in burnt out pine trees.

Sure, they look friendly, but don't mess with them. The goal is to observe nature, not mess with it.

At Vivian Creek Camp, you must cross the creek using a fallen log. There used to be a troll there but he has relocated to the 17th Street Overpass on the 55. Honk if you see him.

Growing up in Minnesota, snow is just a way of life. We did have to walk through some snow but not much. Still this stops people from going. It shouldn't, it's just a little frozen water people.

After making it past the Tatooed Freaks of San Gorgonio, the Troll under the log bridge, and the snow, we finally get to my favorite spot on the trail some 6 hours later. At about 10,000 feet, there is a ridge looking down to Palm Springs with a view of San Jacinto from the base to the summit. You can see it behind us in the picutre below.

For those of you wondering about the Deja Vu part of this story, after taking this picture we proceeded up the trail. We split in 2 groups. Amy and Laura went up ahead. Kris, Moody, and I hung back at a slower pace. We eventually got to the exact spot where I turned around last time, about 10,500'. We sat for a while and turned around. I know it was the same place because there is a psuedo camp site there. At least this time I was still feeling good. No head ache or wacked out dreams. We sat there for a while and then went down to the ridge overlooking Palm Springs. We set a turn around time of 3:00 PM so we would not end up in the dark for too long. Amy and Laura got pretty close to the summit just before 3:00. However, Amy learned the reason we were laughing at her when she first said she wanted to go and said it was just a hike. The altitude was getting to her. She still got farther then I did.

At about 3:30 we all met back at the ridge and started heading down. Amy kept asking how much longer and I just kept telling her "over an hour", which was always true. I think she first asked this question when we were less then 1 mile from High Camp, which meant we still had another 4 hours until we reached the car.

The planning for the trip went well. We got to Vivian Creek Camp just as the sun was setting which left enough ambient light for use to get down the trail, cross the creek, and get to the car at almost the exact time it got totally dark.

Here is what we look like after 13.5 hours of hiking.

Maybe someday I will actually get to the summit.