Sometimes you run the mountain. Sometimes the mountain runs you. Old Grayback definitely made me her bitch today. That’s the life of a hiker and outdoor adventurer. Not every hike has you feeling athletic as you sweat, limp and okay maybe cry trekking up a 10,000-foot mountain in the fog, possibly soaking wet.
I’ve hiked hundreds of times in the San Gorgonio Wilderness and I’ve had bad hi
king days for various reasons. My dog almost got bit by a rattlesnake. One time I fell, split my knee open to the point I’m pretty sure I could see bone if I looked hard enough and I still had to limp two miles back to the car. And then there are the days where I just do not having any energy on a 17-mile hike.
Hiking three miles in the pouring rain is a whole other story. The whole point of this amazing mountain top hike to the top of a 10,000-ft mountain is to see the view of the valley down below. It can be a little discouraging when the whole view down below is socked in with fog when you get to the summit. Thank God we packed our rain ponchos!
Unfortunately, after I made it to the top of about twenty-three rugged switchbacks and finally, finally made my way around the south flank of the mountain I realized there was absolutely no cell phone reception and it was unlikely my boyfriend the Scrambling Squirrel knew I was thinking about turning around in frustration. I had a vision of him huddling in the rain at t
he summit, eating six boiled eggs and waiting for me to emerge from the fog with my trail dog. I decided I had to keep going, I had to continue the hike because it wasn’t fair to leave him waiting for me on this drizzly day at 10,000 feet.
And I’m so unbelievably glad I kept hiking! After I reached the south side of the trail as it wrapped its way around the ancient Lodgepole Pine cluttered mountaintop the hike got so much easier! In my opinion, I guess the last few uphill miles of this massive hike were some of the easiest! Maybe I was just distracted by the stunning scenery, as I squinted at it through the rain.
Fast forward to the next week and here we are on a Thursday trudging our way up San Gorgonio once again, but today it was a hot humid summer day. At this point now, our Mt Whitney trek was only ten days away. The training was in full force. But on this sunny and incredibly humid day, the Scrambling Squirrel and I had a totally different experience! We are recovering from a tiny little cold that we refer to as the Fairway Boulevard Flu. Neither of us was at one hundred percent and I wouldn’t have been doing a twenty-two-mile hike if we didn’t have Mt Whitney coming up so soon.
It was a beautiful summer day. Alas like we have been blessed with all summer long here in Big Bear Lake, California, the weather has just been so incredibly hot and humid with no rain in sight.
We knew it was going to be a long, hard hot hike so we had plans to be on the trail with the sunrise. We dispersed camped nearby at Jenks Lake in our motorhome the night before. Five a.m. came fast and we were ready at six a.m. to hit the trail.
The sunrise was just so inspiring as we trekked through God’s country at 6:00 a.m. We had a very long day ahead of us and I had to stop just a few times to take a few snaps of this. Absolutely amazing Vanilla Sky. I was so encouraged by how lovely the sunrise was and how chilly and comfortable the weather was, I honestly felt great on the trail all morning! I thought I was making great time!
That was before I realized it had taken me seven hours to get get to the summit! Seven hours to get to the summit. How on Earth did it take me seven hours to get to the summit of this stupid mountain? Maybe it was because all the substance I had all morning was just cough drops and how many calories can they really provide?
I honestly felt like I had hiked into a San Gorgonio Twilight Zone episode!