8/6/21 At long last, successful completion of the 24hr 3 Peak Challenge!! And on my 50th birthday to make it even sweeter! 42 miles and 14,000' of gain. Solo and NO tram. Total time of 22:39 including almost 4 hours of drive and transition time. Physically challenging but even more challenging mentally.
1 Finally, at long last, the time had come to start the challenge. The anxiety in the days leading up to August 6th was ridiculous. After training hard all summer, I was paranoid I might get sick, I would hit a bad weather day, there would be a fire closure on one of the trails, etc, etc. If I wasn't trying to do the challenge on a particular day (my 50th birthday!), I would definitely have started earlier in the week. And I was battling a long, annoying case of Achilles tendonitis in both heels that would limit my trail running to little more than power hiking. But at exactly 10:00pm on August 5th, 2021, I was at the fireroad gate ready to start the Ski Hut trail to the top of Mt. Baldy.
2 I had done multiple Baldy training hikes in the dark to make sure I was comfortable doing it solo. And to make sure there were no route finding issues in the areas of trail that can be hard to follow at times even in daylight. The training paid off. Made it to the top in 2:19, not a bad time.
3 It's an amazing city view from the top at night. It was a completely moonless night, so I'm glad I was comfortable here in the dark.
4 I made good time down in 1:32, with only one mild wipeout coming down the "choose your own adventure" section above the bowl. Total round trip time of 3:51. Just under 9 miles and 4,000' of gain. For some reason, my watch consistenly measured low on elevation gain today compared to prior trips and compared to AllTrails.com. But a good start to the challenge. Now for the middle of the night drive to San Gorgonio...
5 I managed to stay awake on the roughly 1hr 25min drive to the Vivian Creek trailhead. Then I had to swap out some gear, refill water, apply sunscreen, etc. I definitely lost time in these transitions between mountains. Some transition practice would have helped. But by 3:39am, I was ready to start up Gorgonio.
6 I spent another 2 hours in the dark before sunrise making for 6 hours so far of pitch black hiking. And unlike the Ski Hut trail, I had no experience in the dark on Vivian. I was VERY happy to finally see the sky start to lighten.
7 Morning glow on Gorgonio.
8 Made it to the ridge above High Camp. This side of the ridge is entirely charred from the Apple fire, but fortunately the Vivian Creek side was spared.
9 Nice morning view towards San Jacinto.
10 Made it to the top in 5:03. The last couple miles were a grind, and I hadn't seen a single person until just below the summit. But I had the summit to myself. There was a cold, howling wind though, so I couldn't have stayed long even if I had wanted to.
11 A look at San Jacinto from the San Gorgonio summit. Hard to believe I would need be heading up that soon.
12 A look towards the ocean, then time to start heading down.
13 The meadow at Vivian Creek is always nice. It was still pitch black here on the way up.
14 Vivian Creek 100% bone dry. It was bone dry even earlier in the Spring, the first time I'd ever seen that.
15 Made it down in 3:13, for a total round trip time of 8:16. I shaved a fair amount off my Gorgonio target time, which would give me a little extra cushion for San Jacinto.
16 Then I had to make the drive out to San Jacinto and the Marion Mtn trailhead. 25 of the miles are winding mountain road, which I was really worried about having not slept in over 32 hours at this point. And I hadn't even slept well the night before that. My transition time was slower than I would have liked again, particularly since I was having stomach issues on Gorgonio and had to resolve that. But in just under 2 hours since finishing Gorgonio, I was ready to start up San Jacinto. The temperature was 86 degrees, which on a normal day wouldn't be too bad. But at this point in the adventure, it was brutal. I was starting to wish I had chosen the tram option.
17 The first couple of miles up Marion Mtn are tough. I was dragging. My initial goal was just to make it up to the flatter section on the PCT and then see how I was feeling. Then I figured I might as well try to get to Little Round Valley. Then I hit this tree across the trail and it was mentally about all I could handle. I knew the next 1-2 miles above the valley were steep. I was running out of gas and had some kind of weird chest tightness going on. Heart attack? Covid? I was getting delirious. I had already broken my personal record for elevation gain in a day, and I had already gone farther and higher than the traditional 3 Peak Challenge using the tram. I tried hard to justify turning around and calling it a day. But I knew I would likely never be this close again. So I begrudgingly pushed on.
18 I made it to the hut. Too close to turn around now.
19 Made it the top!! Super slow at 4:09, but I made it. In my foggy state of mind, I thought there was no way I was going to make it back down inside of the 24hr cutoff, but I was happy to have at least touched all 3 summits.
20 San Gorgonio from the San Jacinto summit. Hard to believe I was just on top of that not long ago.
21 Looking out past Mt Baldy towards the ocean. Even harder to believe I was on top of that too earlier today! As I was starting to recover, my math skills started to improve, and I realized that I could (barring mishap) still make it down well inside of 24hrs. My spirits rose as I headed down.
22 Coming back down through Little Round Valley in much better spirits than on the way up.
23 Sunset and some more trail time in the dark. The last couple of miles down were an endless death march, but I knew I was getting close...
24 Finally, SUCCESS!! Made it down in 2:39 and 6:48 round trip for San Jacinto. Official total end-to-end time for the challenge was 22:39. Total trail time was 18:55. I definitely could have shaved some time if my heels were feeling better and if my transition times were faster. But there were A LOT of things that could have gone wrong that didn't. And for that, I was extremely grateful and happy with my time!
25 Celebrating with my favorite bubbly brought just for the occasion.
26 The 3 Peak Motel. I tried sleeping in the car to avoid the long drive home in my exhausted state. Despite how tired I was, it took me a long time to fall asleep. But I did eventually get a few hours in. Then an excellent french toast breakfast in Idyllwild in the morning, and then home. Mission success. And one long-time item checked off the to-do list!!