It has been 3 weeks since our backpacking trip to the Desolation Wilderness and we were ready for another good hike. We eventually settled on San Bernardino East Peak since it would offer a new trail and a new peak to part of the group. We met at 6:30am to car pool for the ride. With a quick bathroom stop we arrived at Momyer TH around 8:15am and hit the trail 10 minutes later.<\/p>\n
The day started as it always does on that trail: cross Mill Creek on some stepping stones and start climbing up on the long switch backs. Forecast was for mid-70’s for Forest Falls, but it felt warmer even this early and we started to sweat right away. We soon got to the unmarked turn-off for the San Bernardino East trail. There is a sign, but it only points in the direction of the Momyer trail and leaves the destination for the other trail a mystery. Initially the San Bernardino East trail meanders through some burned out area with lots of charred tree stumps. Eventually one reaches the intact forest. At that point it started to be noticeably cooler, perfect hiking temperatures.<\/p>\n
We continued on and during one of our hourly refueling breaks Klaus remarked that we did not take many pictures to which we responded that there was not much new to see for us since we had been on these slopes so many times (a remark that would haunt us later…). Clouds were blowing above us at quite a high speed and at around 9,500 ft we got to the bottom of the cloud layer and experienced brief periods of fog. At about 10,000 ft the trail turns to the east slope of the mountain and we got hit by the strong winds that were propelling the clouds. We continued on and started to scramble up the slope over some boulders. Once on the ridge we followed the San Bernardino Divide trail and quickly arrived at our goal. It was windy and since we were right at the bottom of the cloud layer we got spectacular scenery changes with windows of views of the valley below us and the mountains around us opening and closing rapidly.<\/p>\n