San Gorgonio via Dollar Lake

 At 11,503' San Gorgonio Mountain is the highest mountain in Southern California. It is essentially in the backyard of my home in Big Bear Lake and since I have been in Big Bear I've made it to the top maybe 10 times. This last time was pretty sweet. We hit snow on the way up pretty early on, well below the cabin which is maybe a mile in and from there it was pretty slow going. Lots of fun and a tough day as moving up through the fresh snow was just relentless work. Well worth it for the 30 minutes we spent on top with nobody around. 4 hours to the top and then another 2 or so back to the car for a solid 6 plus hour day.

 

 

I really enjoyed getting up to the top and back in these conditions. It was pretty special. I ran with my buddy Shane who is a 100 mile ultra guy and just coming off a rough go at the Kodiak 100 where he had to drop at mile 83 due to chaffing. Ouch. We put in a few fast miles on the way down and I was loving it. Really made me want to go back and try to run summit to car in as fast a time as I can. Current FKT is 3hr34min, at least to my knowledge, set by Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren utilizing the north gully. I'm thinking sub 3hr30min is definitely doable on the Dollar Lake trail.