San Bernardino Peak was number 5 on the list of training hikes for Mt. Whitney.
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Since the round trip distance is over 16 miles, we decided to do it as weekend backpacking trip. We got a relatively late start on Saturday, but only had to hike 6 miles to our campsite at Limber Pines. The trail was well maintained with a nice manageable slope, although we had 3200 feet to climb. The first half of the trail was soft dirt shaded by large trees, the second half was lined with boulders and manzanita.
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After 5.5 hours we made it to the empty campground and chose the most remote site off the trail and overlooking the valley (Inland Empire). As the sunset behind Mt. Baldy, we climbed up on the boulders and enjoyed a dessert of freeze dried chocolate cheesecake!
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Sadly the city lights below washed out most of the stars, so we took photos of our glowing tent.
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The next morning we prepared for the 2.1 mile hike to the peak (and the hike down) with a mocha made with filtered mountain water.
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The hike to the peak was easy in the cool morning we even stopped to take some photos on the way up.
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San Bernardino Peak is at 10,650 feet and has an incredible views of mountains we’ve bagged and planned to summit this summer.
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Since we reached the summit of San Bernardino Peak pretty early in the morning and we were feeling good, we looked east to East San Bernardino Peak. The East Peak is actually slightly higher (10,690′) and is also on the “100 peaks” list… and it was only a mile away with a couple hundred feet of gain. So we checked our water and headed to East San Bernardino.
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After bagging both peaks we headed back to camp, enjoyed a hot lunch, and hiked back to the car completing 14.5 miles for the day. This was one of our favorite hikes so far because the views were beautiful, the trail was well maintained with a gentle grade, and we had perfect weather.
