A map of the area surrounding the summit.

1. Here is where we initially met the man who was staying on the summit. As you can see the trail (black dashed line) wraps around the summit. That man had taken a route to the summit similar to what is indicated by the red line. When we left the summit that is the route we took down. Going down the bowl was very easy and took a couple of minutes, whereas the trail would have taken a lot longer.

2. When we got down to the trail we were getting ready to head back when we heard a whistle blowing. Since we had not really seen anybody else on trail we thought it had to be Christa. However, we could not tell where the sound was coming from. There was a ridge and valley parallel to where we were at so we thought the sound could be coming up from down below. We really did not think Christa had made it to the summit. We tried yelling to confirm the person was Christa and to figure out where she was without any success. We decided to split up to try and find her. Joel and Mark were going to go back up the trail towards the summit and Matt was going back towards camp.

3. As Joel and Mark were going back to the summit they were still hearing the whistle every once in a while. After going on the other side of the ridge they no longer heard the whistle and decided to go back the other direction.

4.After Mark and Joel got to the other side of the ridge we heard the whistle again and this time it sounded a lot closer. We yelled for Christa and this time we got a response! She turned on a light and we could see her at the same elevation as us. We asked her if Matt was with her, and she replied that he was not. When we got to Christa we blew the whistle three times which was our signal to each other that we found Christa.

So what happened? Christa actually did make it to the summit and must have just been getting close when we started down into the bowl. She was expecting to find us coming down the trail, and when she arrived on the summit and we weren't there she started to blow the whistle. The man on the summit heard her and came out to investigate. He told Christa that we were on the summit a few minutes earlier. Since it was about to get dark (the sun just set) he loaned her a headlamp and windbreaker, and for help getting down from the summit he gave her some trekking poles.

5.When we got to the switchbacks we were able to yell down to Matt and tell him everything was okay. But it was 30 minutes before we got down to him, he ran much of the way!

The way back to the campsite was uneventful except for the fact that we did much of the way in the dark. We got back to the campsite around 8:00pm. Matt and Christa went to go get a little water from the lake while Mark and Joel got the water we had available boiling for dinner. The temperature on Mark's little thermometer was around 20 degrees, but thankfully there was no wind. We were all exhausted and went right to our tents after dinner.


Mark and Joel's tent in the morning. We had the rain-fly on during the night, but it was full of condensation in the morning and needed to be dried out. It was cold in the morning until the sun hit the camp and it warmed up quickly.


Matt and Christa's tent.


The "meadow" on the northeast end of Dry Lake. San Gorgonio Mountain is behind the tree on the left, Jepson Peak is on the right.


On the approach to Dry Lake there is a wooden map showing where the camping areas for Dry Lake and Lodgepole Spring. Mark is pointing to where we were camped.


The first stream we crossed on the way back. We stopped here to get a little water before the final push down.


Matt and Christa crossing the stream.


Mark at the trailhead sign at the end of the trip.

Overall we had a great time and saw some amazing sights. We worked hard on Saturday hiking over 18 miles with 4,620 feet of elevation gain, but we all made it to the summit even if it was at different times!


Other recent camping/hiking/backpacking trips

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