What a beautiful Big Bear day to go for a “Moderate” hike! And when you are training to summit the Big W (Mt Whitney) moderate might mean an eight-mile hike with close to 3,000 feet of altitude gain! On this Wednesday, it was time for yet another Mt Whitney training hike.
Mt Whitney is the highest peak in the Continental United States and she is one hell of a mountain! I feel like my training is extremely behind at this point. Yes, I also know that compared to the other 30,000 hikers who attempt to summit Mt Whitney each year I’m excelling in my high-elevation training but that just doesn’t feel good enough! Only thirty percent of the hikers who attempt to summit Mt Whitney make it to the top. Part of that reason is that many people try to summit without training. They also do not have the correct nutrition. Sometimes they choose the wrong shoes. Many don’t carry enough water.
Hiking over twenty-one miles in one day is not for the faint of heart. Or the weak. It is a challenge that requires months of training prior to reaching the Mt Whitney Portal. I’m blessed to live among the pines at over six thousand feet. My backyard playground is a great outdoor gym for a Mt Whitney training hike (Or two or forty)
With four weeks to go until my personal ascent up Mt Whitney, all 6,663 feet of altitude gain, I have been trying to get in some long-distance hikes with substantial elevation gain. As Big Bear Lake California’s elite hiking guide, it can be hard to find the time to train during a busy summer season in this tourist town. Some days I may hike twelve miles with my guests on some of the most scenic alpine trails and sure all those miles on my feet in my Asics running shoes do help to condition my feet, but I need to do some harder uphill training also! And that is how sometimes I find myself running up to the top of Snow Summit at 8,200 feet on my lunch break just to get an actual Mt Whitney training hike in on a Tuesday. But today I was blessed with a whole morning free, just me and then pup and Sugarlump Mountain!
Let’s hike Sugarlump!
I heard a rumor on social media that there was a way to get from Sugarlump, the highest peak at Bear Mountain Ski Resort to the top of Mt Sugarloaf, which towers above the east end of Big Bear Lake at over 8,790 feet. With a whole summer morning of no work on the horizon, the pup and I hit the trail at eight a.m. for some high-altitude high jinks towering above Big Bear Lake! But first, the pup decided she would like to chase a jackrabbit or two! Thank God she was on the leash or I would have been preparing a zesty Jackrabbit Curry for dinner! Is Jackrabbit Curry keto? I’m sure it is.
Here we are, four weeks out from summiting Mt Whitney and the training struggle is real. Every day my boyfriend and I are out hiking or cycling. Yesterday I worked as a hiking guide from eight a.m. to eight p.m. I hiked over twelve miles in one workday! Okay, I also trekked to the top of Snow Summit Ski Resort on my lunch break because apparently, I’m a hiking extremist! I did however chill out and take the Sky Lift at Snow Summit back down to my car. And also saved thirty minutes as I had to rush back to Red Ant Hill on the west side to lead another of Big Bear Lake’s most spectacular Jeep tours
in the late afternoon.
So what do I get up to on my morning off? Well, let’s get out hiking again of course! I have been hiking at Bear Mountain Resort and up and down Sugarlump Truck Trail quite a bit lately as there are just fields of the prettiest wildflowers; red penstemon, cream-colored yarrow and that elusive high-elevation Polar Princess Lupine.
So I have to say, Sugarloaf Mountain is one of my least favorite hikes in all of Big Bear Lake. Number one, snakes. Want to see a Pacific Rattlesnake? Go for a summertime hike at Sugarloaf. My boyfriend has been summiting Sugarloaf twice a week (Without the dog) as a Mt Whitney training hike. As for the pup and I, we stick to the ski resort areas where there tend to be fewer snakes.
So when I heard a rumor that there was another route to the top of Sugarloaf, I hoped it was not fake news. I packed a low-sugar smoothie, and two litters of H2O and the pup and I were driving to the trailhead by eight a.m. There were thunderheads on the horizon and I hoped we would be trekking under the clouds by 
ten a.m.
I had never actually trekked through the eastern edge of the Bear Mountain property and was looking for a new hike, for me. The east side of the resort did not disappoint! Scenic views of the San Gorgonio Wilderness and fields of just gorgeous fragrant purple wildflowers met me at over six thousand feet. However, once I actually reached the summit of Sugarlump at the last chair lift to the east I could see it was all a rock scramble to reach Sugarloaf Mountain across the way. No, thank you. As much as I need to train for Mt Whitney, I don’t need to scramble up and over downed trees for a mile and a half.
According to the Dumb-Dumbs at All Trails, this trek to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain via Sugarlump should be less than nine miles. That is so much fake news! From the top of Clubview today, my whole trek to the top of Sugarlump and back was close to eight miles. This is why I am not an ATH (All Trails Hiker) You can’t trust everything you read on the internet.
Sugar Nope
I’m living the keto lifestyle every damn day; Sugar nope is common rhetoric in our household! We do our best in our household to stay low-carb high protein. Yes, sometimes it can be a challenge but we take our health seriously, especially when we have such an intense athletic challenge in the near future.
I can absolutely see how you cou
ld hike along the ridgeline past Sugarlump to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. If you felt like it. According to that dumb All Trails app, it’s only another mile and a half but that’s a mile and a half of off-trail shenanigans with possible rattlesnake sightings. I was not down. I would love to return and hike this route in late November with just a dusting of snow before the ski resorts open for the season.
This was just a fantastic and challenging day of Mt Whitney training hike shenanigans in the Big Bear Valley. And I can’t wait to come back and trek this trail again!