I’m set to depart San Diego on Friday after work with three companions for a high-altitude training session. We are doing a through-hike from the Angelus Oaks campground (6,000 feet) at the base of San Bernardino Mountain to the Vivian Creek trailhead parking lot at the base of Mount San Gorgonio. Our two vehicles will remain at the starting and finishing points of our 27-mile trek.

We’ll get started at 5 a.m. and tackle a 4,400-foot ascent to the summit of San Bernardino Mountain at 10,400 feet. Once we get to the ridge line, our journey continues eastward, traversing across the entire ridgeline of the San Bernardino Mountains, hence the “San Bernardino Traverse” or the “9 Peak Traverse” to Mount San Gorgonio which, at 11,500 feet, happens to be the highest peak in Southern California.

The final push is an eight-mile descent off of “San G” via the Vivian Creek trail. We should arrive at the second car roughly 10 hours, 27 miles and 8,000 feet in net elevation gain later. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be back in San Diego just after sunset. Here is a list of the peaks we will summit during our trek:

Angeles Oaks Trailhead

San Bernardino Peak

San Bernardino Peak East

Anderson Peak

Shield's Peak

Alto Diablo

Charlton Peak

Little Charlton Peak

Jepson Peak

Mount San Gorgonio

I completed this trek in June 2006 in 11 hours, 20 minutes. Here are two pictures from that journey. Stay tuned for a recap and pictures early next week.