This Mountain Hates Us

So Kris and I decided to make another attempt on San Gorgonio. This time we were going to take 3 days. Day 1 - go to High Creek Camp. Day 2 - Summit. Day 3 - hike out. We got the permit way ahead of time. I bought a new 4 season tent. We had all the gear and had a rough plan. Kris showed up at my place on November 24th and we split up the load. He ended up with a 45 lb pack, mine was 50 lbs. Not too bad, we definitely had a lot of food but most of the weight was just he cold weather gear (and it was totally worth bringing). Quest is also having a contest for Toad (one of our products). Take pictures with the "I love Toad" sticker and send them in, so we brought some stickers too. We hit Wahoo's on the way out. Here we are at the trail head on Friday. The weather was perfect - cool, clear skies, no wind.

We headed up the trail. The first portion after the creek crossing is the worst part. I felt great and went right up it. Kris was feeling good too.

The view down the valley was great. We could see Mt. Baldy and the other peaks in the San Gabriels. They didn't show up well in the picture.

We reached the top of the tough portion and were doing great.

We were cruising up the path, stopping occasionally for some snacks. We got to Halfway camp and the sun was still up. It got dark shortly there after. Kris started feeling sick and we pushed on slowly. He was feeling like I usually feel. Heart racing, short of breath, wanting to puke. It was exhaustion. We sat for a while, Kris ate and drank to see if it would help. I knew exactly how he was feeling, I've been there many times on this same mountain. While we were resting a helicopter came up the valley. They circled us and put the spot light on us. We waved them off, they must have been looking for someone. There were other people on the trail that had the same experience. We decided to drop down to Half Way camp for the night. It was dark but it was still early, only about 7:00 PM. We got to Halfway, setup camp, and made some dinner. It was cold but not too bad, probably in the 20's. We both had our 0 degree bags so we were more than comfortable in the 4 season tent. I slept great. Kris was up all night still feeling sick. In the morning we had some breakfast and packed up. Kris still wasn't feeling great. We'll get this mountain another time.

Here's Kris with the Toad sticker during Breakfast at Halfway. We saw a lot of people on the trail but the camp was pretty empty, only 2 other tents. We mixed every flavor of oatmeal. If Fruit Loops made oatmeal it would have tasted like the batch we made. We packed up and headed down.

More Toad pictures above. Waterfall below.

It was a great hike. I don't reach the summit on most my hikes lately, I just enjoy being outdoors. It was great that Kris could come along. In the parking lot the guy next to us noticed the toad on Kris's shirt. He calls his daughter Toad, Kris gaving him a sticker. We stopped at a geocache on the way home and put in the other Toad sticker. Ironically there was a toy toad in the cache already. We grabbed it. We stopped at Angelos and Vincis in Fullerton and picked up a pizza.

We'll try again another time, maybe a 5 day trip this time :)