Boots on the Trail: To San Bernardino Peak and Back

The weather the week before was a mixed bag of 100+ temps, monsoons, high winds and lightning, but by Sunday 8-29 the weather was with us. The start of the hike had temps in the high 40's and by the time we summited at 11:10 it was in the low 50's with a light breeze.       

 San Bernardino Peak from Angelus Oaks is a great trail in the San Gorgonio Wilderness, well maintained with little use; we only saw 3 other hikers that day. The Boots on the Trail group size varies greatly with each hike. The smallest group was my daughter and me last year from Mt. Baldy Village to Mt. San Antonio summit. This hike to San Bernardino Peak was the largest so far with 19 humans and 3 dogs. 13 humans and 1 dog went to the summit with a starting elevation of 5960' and the peak at 10649' for a total elevation gain was 4689' and 16 miles round trip. The other 6 hikers and 2 dogs went to Manzanita Springs area with an elevation gain of 2280' and 8.6 miles round trip.

View San Bernardino Peak in a larger map

There were members from Valley of the Falls, Mountain (Central) and Cave and Technical Rescue SAR teams plus family and friends, and one hiker from Nepal. I figure I owe it to everyone to list their names seeing how some had to wake up at 3:00am on a Sunday to have Boots on the Trail by 6:00am, but they all said it was worth it.

John Metzger, Ryan Olney, Barbara Pitiak-Rolsten, Nellie Nadeau, David Hedd, Luis Frausto, Victor Cintron, Michael O'Brien, Hilda O'Rourke-O'Brien, John Strube, Anna Papazian, Jen Hopper, Rajendra Lama, Christine Stuehrmann, Travis Stuehrmann, Michael Terzo, Frank Becerra, Steve Mueller, and Jack Nelson made the trek.

 

Taking suggestions from everyone for the next hike, we came up with the Mt. Baldy area, where we will do  the Devil's Backbone to Mt. San Antonio Summit and down the North Devil's Backbone into Wrightwood. I will set up the date and other information in the weeks to come.