#old greyback

Last summer I went camping at San Gorgonio Mountain with my buddy Jozias.  San Gorgonio, also known as Old Greyback, is part of the San Bernardino National Forest and at 11,503ft (3,506m) is the tallest peak in southern California.  Before venturing off into the wilderness we spent the night in Big Bear getting our gear prepped.  The following morning we started our ascent up the mountain.  After 10 miles of hiking lots of switchbacks and rain, we finally reached our campsite which was at approximately 9,000ft.  By the time we reached the site we had about an hour of sunlight to setup camp, and luckily the rain stopped long enough for us to do it.  Once we got setup we had a very mediocre dinner of hotdogs and some hot chocolate followed by a long uncomfortable night with no sleeping pad and a sleeping roll that was no match for the cold weather.

After a long cold and rainy night the clouds broke and the sun came out.  I headed over to a break in the trees to warmup in the sunshine and check out a pond that we passed on the way in.  Later that morning we set out to go check out an old crash site from the 1950s.  As we were heading higher up the mountain a storm started to roll in and within minutes we were being pelted by hail and the trails were quickly flooded, once lighting was added to the mix we decided it was best to head back so at about 11,000ft we turned around and started our descent back to camp.

Even though the weather wasn't favorable the trip was still a lot of fun and the area is definitely a place I'd like to check out again.