Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Questions on hiking Baldy and Mt. San Gorgonio.

Preparing to hike Mt. Whitney in one day in late August. We have the permits and have camping reservations at Onion valley
( hoping the fires did not destroy the campground) for two days before the hike. We have been doing local hikes here in Orange county and recentely did half dome. We now want to hike Mt Baldy and San Gorgonio before we leave.

Questions:

1. Do you need any types of permits to do these hikes in a day ?
2. Which hike do you recommend we do first ?
3. Any other training hikes recommended before we go ?

Thanks for advice

Congrats on your adventure! You will need permits to day hike San G and I believe Baldy also. I would reccomend Baldy first since San G is a little more strenous. Start early on both of these hikes, its getting to warm to be out their in the afternoon. If you have time, do San Jacinto also. These 3 hikes gave me the training for a succesful day hike of Whitney on June 16. If you want to do more hikes before your date, i would head into higher elevation, maybe in the White Mountains, or up to Mt. Langley. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

I'm pretty sure you don't need a permit to dayhike Baldy; just an Adventure Pass to park at the trailheads. Baldy has several trails to the summit which vary wildly in difficulty; the Bear Canyon Trail from the Visitor Center is probably more difficult (more elevation gain, no water) than any of San G's trails, including the Vivian Creek.

You will not need a permit to hike Baldy...there are a number of good spots to start your hike...the first one is at the ranger station...about 6 miles each way with about 5k feet of elevation gain. The second hike starts at Manker Flat...this hike is also know as the ski hut trail. This is roughly 4 miles each way with 4k feet of elevation gain. This is the hike I would try first. Get a map for this area as there are a number of other really cool hikes in the area.

San Gorgonio does require a permit...you can order on line or stop by the ranger station early in the morning as they issue day permits as well (they leave the permit paperwork outside during off hours). These are limited, so plan in advance. The shortest trail is Vivian Creek...roughly 17 miles round trip.
Ed

You will need a permit for Gorgonio, but not for Baldy. As already mentioned, either of these two hikes will require an Adventure Pass for you to park. Baldy from Baldy Village is probably the toughest, followed by the Vivian Creek Trail of Gorgonio. I have done both in the past, and will be doing Vivian Creek again this Friday as a warm-up for Whitney in early August. I would plan for an early start for either hike, as it will be quite warm as the day goes on. Baldy from the Village has no water, while there are two water places on Vivian Creek, at Vivian Creek Camp and High Creek Camp.

Another excellent warm-up hike for Whitney would be White Mountain, but the fires going on at this time near Big Pine probably will prevent this being done right now. If you can get there in late July or early August, I would recommend doing White Mountain. At 14,246 feet, it is the third highest peak in California. The trailhead, located north of the Ancient Bristlecones Pines Forest, is at 11,650 feet, higher than the summit of Gorgonio. The entire hike is above the timberline, is 15 miles roundtrip, and there is no water for the hike, so what you start out with has to last the entire hike.

Good luck on your training, and on Whitney.

Whitney Mike

The Bear Springs trail from is village is a really tough hike and I think is hader than any part of the main trail on Whintey, but I really don't like coming down so I do the following. Park at Ice House Canyon, hike down to the village(I.5 miles) then do the Bear Springs trail to the summit, from there go down the Devils's Backbone to the Notch, down the fire road to Menker Flats then hike down the road to Ice house Canyon. This route is about 17-18 miles and is gret training.

1. You are required to have day hike permits for the entire San Gorgonio Wilderness. The permits for San G are difficult to get sometimes. A good idea is to have a back up plan if you going out there without an advanced permit. We use Angelus Oak to San Bernardino Peak as our plan up, 16 miles, +4,600'.

2. Whatever floats your boat. There are a lot of way to do Baldy. Bear Flats, Ski Hut, Notch/Devil's Backbone, North Backbone, Register Route or Three Ts plus Harwood and Baldy. Figure out which route matches where you are in your training regiment. The only thing missing in the Mt. Baldy area is 4,500' more of elevation.

3. As mentioned previously, White Mountain is where I would go. It will give you an idea of what it is like to hike over 11,500' and most likely will expose a problem with AMS. I'd, also, take a trip over to Whitney Portal to get the lay of the land if you have not been there.

Here is a link for the San Gorgonio Wilderness Association,

As stated in previous posts, you do not need a permit to climb Baldy but you do for San G. I hiked the Bear Springs Trail yesterday and in spite of it being 73 degrees at the start (7AM) the day was actually quite pleasant and did not get hot until coming down from the notch on the dirt road to Manker Flats. IMHO, the Bear Springs Trail is much more difficult then San G via Vivian Creek Trail. I would even argue the Sierra Hut Trail up Baldy is more difficult. Not as far but much steeper. Make sure you have enough liquid as there is no water going up Baldy.