Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports San Gorgonio via Vivan Creek 8/13/11

The angels summited San Gorgonio on 8/13/11. Bummer, we missed seeing Wazzu on the trail. I forgot my freak flags.

ATTENTION ALL HIKERS IN TRAINING FOR MT. WHITNEY: This is my opinion, if you want to summit Mt. Whitney a good training hike is San Gorgonio via the Vivian Creek Trail. The first mile of the trail is for a mountain goat, it's a killer. Between the first mile and High Camp, the trail is much like the main trail of Mt. Whitney. From High Camp to the summit is a lot like the backside of the Mt. Whitney Trail after Trail Crest, mainly because of the altitude. If you hike another trail to the summit of San G. you are not getting a good feel for Mt. Whitney. The Vivian Creek Trail is the most strenuous trail to the summit and it's the easiest permit to get because most hikers do not want to summit via Vivian Creek. Next, the Angels are in the desert on their way to Idyllwild.

Marion Mtn Trail or Deer Springs? Was up there today @ Marion, Jean, and San Jacinto.

Vivian is a good training hike for Whitney. Too many bugs though!

I agree with doing this hike as a training hike for Mt. Whitney. I did this hike several times in 2 hours and 50 minutes and was able to summit Whitney in 5 hours and 30 minutes with a 6AM start and at age 41.

Geeez, you're not taking any breaks huh??? That's a very admirable pace.

Atari..... I LOVE Marion Mtn, especially in early Spring when the waterfalls are flowing.

RE: I agree with doing this hike as a training hike for Mt. Whitney. I did this hike several times in 2 hours and 50 minutes

Ruffpace, OMG....are you human? You must be a Super-Human to summit San G. in under 3 via any trail and especially Vivian Creek Trail. I'm impressed. Now I won't tell you how long it took us.

San G. needs a bigger marker at the summit...it's such a dinky little marker and it's hard to read and not shiney and pretty. The summit of San G. is so dull compared to Mt. Whitney...it's a pile of rocks, but the view is good and on a clear day a person can see the ocean.

To answer your question: What trail did we hike in the Idyllwild area this last weekend, we hiked Deer Spring Trail, it was the only trail which had permits available when we arrived at the Ranger Station...it's a beautiful trail, and a "piece of cake hike"...I love it. I could hike that trail everyday, it's so enjoyable.

I think people have done the Whitney trail much faster than 2 hours and 50 minutes. I think whatever time it took to do the Vivian Creek Trail you could double that time and it would be a good indicator of how long it will take someone to do the Mt. Whitney Trail. I did Mt. Whitney that year in 5 Hours and 30 minutes with two other people. Then we ran down in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Would that have been a good indicator for what your times were?

Re: Would that have been a good indicator for what your times were?

Yeah, in my wildest dreams....are you kidding, that pace would about kill me even in my youth. You're not human, that's all there is to it. You should have been in the Olympics.

Agreed 100%. I hiked Vivian Creek a couple months AFTER Whitney. The first part of the trail is the worst especially coming down. My calves and feet took a terrible beating navigating down that steep, loose, and rocky first part of the trail. Never had any problems with blisters on Whitney but did on Vivian Creek. Just goes to show that a mountain doesn't have be 14,000+ feet to be challenging!

Nice to know that. I hiked SG via Vivian Creek Sept. 29th. It whooped my butt for sure; made me realize I possibly needed Diamox. I did great until about the last hour, then started to feel the altitude, I guess. San Jacinto didn't bother me at all, but SG did. Leaving in a few minutes to pick up my RX for Diamox. :-) Thanks for the comments.
We had gotten a late start that day, and finished the last 45 minutes of the Vivian Creek trail in the dark!! Now that was really tough.

Wow. I just read some of those times! I don't think I'm even part of the same species as some of these guys!! LOL They're super human!!! I'm 54 and it took me 5 hours/45 minutes to get to the top of San Gorgonio. (I got a little sick the last hour) We did jog/fast walk down, and it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to descend, with the last 45 in the dark. I didn't really start hiking until the end of June, so I'm happy with my progress. I did all of my training this summer on Mt. Baldy, via ski hut or devil's backbone trail. I agree with the other post; that guy should have been in the Olympics!