Hi Mark! All the distances listed in our guides are total mileage. For an out-and-back route like this, it’s 16.5 miles total (8.25 each way).

Wonderful hike.

-marc

If the winter is dry, maybe I can give it a shot in December.

Chris, sounds like you had a good “scouting mission” for the Nine-Peaks Challenge. Well done!

Thanks for the note. I sorted it out in a most elegant way. I broke down and drove up the night before, renting a cabin at the Angelus Oaks Lodge. What an option! I’m too cheap to do that regularly, but I wanted an early start and driving up from Pasadena was going to make that tough. But, I got a great night’s sleep, had a real bathroom to start the day, and the trail head was literally .2 miles away. I was on the trail first at 5:30 or so. Five hours later I’d been to Washington Monument, Mt SB, SB East Peak, and Anderson Peak. 10:30 was my turnaround time, So, even though Shields and Alto Diablo were close, I headed back. The route was my favorite — better than Vivian Creek and way better than anything on Baldy. The views, the meadows, the ridge, it was just terrific. From lunch on Anderson, it became clear that I’m going to have to do the nine-peak challenge. You can see several of the peaks and they’re not that far! I’m sure they’ll feel so far when the elevation gets to me, but clearly a great goal for next year.

I’m sure I’ll be rereading your post on it as I get close. Again, thanks for the review and the feedback.

Chris.

Hey Chris! There are no facilities at the San Bernardino Trailhead in Angelus Oaks. There is a Starbucks on the border of Redlands and Mentone as you approach the mountains — that’s usually my last stop. 😉

Thanks for this post and all the others. I’ve finally started exploring the mountains after years of staring at them from traffic. Great stuff, and I’ve leaned on the skinny from you and your site.

Now I’m working on the Six-Pack but trying to tick off the 10,000 foot peaks while I’m at it. This weekend, I’m trying to run the ridge starting form Washington Monument to Alto Diablo — getting San Bernardino along the way. (in some future, I’ll try your 9-Peak Traverse.)

My question for you is really a basic one: is there a port-a-john at the parking lot? I’ve done a lot of looking on the internet for this fundamental question, but no answers! I’ll be starting early and will be anxious to make time, so driving around in the dark looking for the loo is going to kill me. Any idea?

Thanks, and again thanks for the site. Chris.

Linda, San Bernardino Peak is a strenuous hike, as are all of the hikes in the Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge. As for difficulty level, that’s a very personal thing to measure. The three things that I look at when gauging the difficulty of any trail are:

1. The total mileage. Have you hiked that distance before? How recently?
2. The total vertical gain. Have you climbed that vertical gain before?
3. The elevation. Higher elevation hikes (usually above 9,000 or 10,000 feet) have less oxygen, which impacts your performance.

Compare those three metrics with San Bernardino (or any hike) and you’ll get some idea of how hard it will be for you.

Gary, you’ll find it on this page: http://sgwa.org/wilderness-permits/

There are two versions: one for day hikes and another for overnight trips. Both are Acrobat PDF files. I typically fill them in, then scan them back to a PDF and fax to the ranger station using one of the many free Internet fax services.

Antonia,

Check the hike logs for the latest conditions. Denis posted this log of his hike on May 4th, and noted that there was still snow for the last 1,600 vertical feet. We got additional snow this past weekend, so you will likely need traction devices and winter navigation skills.

Cris, this trail reopened about a month after the Lake fire. When I hiked this last October, I saw hardly any signs of the fire from this trail; it was largely unaffected.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone but I believe you need to bring all of your own. 2L per person is sufficient.

It can fill up, especially on the weekends. Worst-case scenario, you could drop your gear at the trailhead and park somewhere along the access road.

I hiked up the next day from Forsee Creek to Manzanita Springs. It’s 2.2km o/w longer by this route but a bit easier and lots of water along the way. If permits from Angelus Oaks are full you might try from this direction.

There are two possible water locations en route. Manzanita Springs and Limber Pine Springs. Of the two, Limber Pine Springs is fairly reliable in normal years. I’m not sure I would count on it this year.

That is a challenge with this trail — you’ll need to carry your water.

Thanks for the correction, Candace. I was going by what my GPS recorded, which (as I admit in the post) was not 100% accurate. I’ll update the post with your expert guidance.

By the way, that’s a heckuva Saturday routine!

Awesome, Sean! Glad you had a good experience. Proper preparation makes all the difference, doesn’t it?

What an incredible hike! Temperature when we hit the trail at 6am was about 70. By the time we returned at 3:30pm, it was 93. So it was a hot one. But I learned my lesson the hard way on Baldy and was prepared. We all had plenty of water, and drank more by far on this hike than any previous. It made for a much, much better experience.

Sean, have a great hike this weekend. Either trail will help prepare you for Whitney.

And thanks for the feedback. It’s good to know I’m not the only one that’s happened to.

I’m not out to break any speed records, just hiking to enjoy the wilderness, the exercise and the camaraderie. You’re welcome to join anytime. I often hike with the Hiking OC club. They post a calendar of hikes that covers a broad range of ability, duration and geography.

Enjoyed hiking Baldy with you. Tyler shared some of the experience via Facebook and some back & forth messages. Now I’ve read your blog too — good job! This is what I like to do too, though I put mine on Picasa and call them photoblogs — no text as such, but I tell the story with extensive captions. Though I’ve never thought of climbing Mt. San B before this, now I’m bitten and would like to do it some time.

Lily, you’re so right — this trail is a gem. Very beautiful. And even though it’s long and has a lot of vertical gain, the trail is gradual and never feels too steep. I’ll definitely do this one again.

Thanks for joining me on this hike, Jim. Looking forward to the next big adventure.