Mount San Bernardino

And now for something a little less urban.

Aki and I had been getting out on some local (less than an hour's drive) hikes with a meetup.com group called HikingOC. While it has been good to get some exercise, meet new people, and learn about the local areas, I wanted to do something a little more intense.

Mount San Bernardino is one of the peaks in the San Bernardino National Forest, located due east of Los Angeles. At 10,649 feet, it doesn't quite rise above treeline, but it's sufficiently far enough away from civilization that it feels remote. It was the first time I was out of cell phone coverage since moving down here!

Wilderness!

As this was to be a shuttle trip, half of us started up the trail while the others went about to manage logistics.

The trail itself was very clear and well maintained. I chose to wear trail runners on this day and was happy with this decision, as my mountaineering boots would have been overkill.

Very interesting molting of tree bark

It was a steady uphill for 2 hours to the intersection where we had agreed to wait. The location was great for a rest, and a couple of us came close to taking a nap.

After about 40 minutes, the rest of the group arrived at the intersection and we were good to go!

Waiting for the shuttle arrangers

Unfortunately, the forecast of rain held up, and we had a mix of rain, wind, and lightning for the entire time we walked along the high ridge. All three summits were attained, but we didn't spend much time on any of them (hence the lack of photos).

I felt a lot more comfortable as we started coming down from the third summit, as walking around with an aluminum tripod sticking out of my pack with thunder booming around me was somewhat beyond my risk tolerance level. As we lost elevation, the dark clouds rolled past us to the east, and the rest of the hike down to the second trailhead was uneventful, albeit a bit tedious as we lost all of our views quickly.

One area that we got a good view of was Big Bear Lake, on the north side of the valley. Thoughts of snow covering those slopes in the winter made me feel as though perhaps the worst of the summer had been endured.

https://www.endomondo.com/workouts/383933835/3101909