Southern California Triple Crown via run/bike = San Jacinto-San Gorgonio-Mt. Baldy
Over the last several years my epic adventure buddy Joe Stevick and I have mentioned the idea of completing the triple crown challenge by connecting the three biggest peaks in Southern CA with a bike ride in between. Many people complete the triple crown by car, but I had not heard of anyone doing it by biking. Last year I was able to log a lot of miles on my road bike as well as put in some significant running, so summer 2021 made sense to go for this big challenge. On top of that fact, I also wanted to plan a number of special epics with friends to celebrate my approaching 50th birthday (Sept. 4), and this SoCal Triple peak challenge was a great way to connect with friends old and new b/c any one of them could do part or all of the challenge according to their interest, fitness level, and challenge.
Part 1. We started later than planned due to holiday weekend traffic, but it all worked out. We had a great start to the event with 7 guys! Thanks so much to Adrian G., Joe S., Joe N. Hector, Vincent, and Ian. What an awesome group trail run. The summit views were stunning and the weather was perfect. We finished up just as it was getting dark, and Hector had pizza and Dr. Pepper for us at the van.
Part 2. Adrian Gonzales, Joe Stevick, and I (Xander Koops) then took off biking from Humber Park to Vivian Creek. We had a few memorable moments, including the fun and fast descent with an incredible view of the remaining sun glow on the horizon and city lights below. Also, seeing a beautiful owl fly right over my head, and passing a taco stand on the side of the road that had tons of people all getting food--we wanted to stop, but the clock was ticking so we voted not to wait in the long line (sorry Adrian!).
Unfortunately, there sections of the bike route that were not great, and some debris on the side of the road gave us 2 flat tires during this section. I would recommend people explore other biking routes if possible, though there are not a lot of great options to get through this area.
The bike ride ended with the climb up to Forest Falls, and the last hour we got rained on, which was amazing and felt great. That final couple of miles to the trailhead was really tough and long, but the rain was a pleasant distraction. Adrian was starting to feel some pains and was thinking about stopping a couple miles short of the end, so Joe Stevick and I pulled ahead and go to the trailhead and sent Hector back to pick up Adrian, but then Adrian dug into his reserves and managed to pull off the entire ride!! At this point, around 2:30am, however, Adrian and Hector packed up and went home: Adrian had to referee for a professional soccer game on Saturday, and Hector was doing some coaching for the high school cross country team.
Part 3. The climb up San Gorgonio. Awesome mountain! highly recommended! We were originally hoping to start running up around 11pm to 12 midnight...but ended up starting 3:21 am... mostly hiking up, and a little jogging down. The hike was a really nice time to catch up with Joe S. It was beautiful to watch the glow of sunlight appear, and then summit in the early morning. Joe S got a little altitude sick but hung in there. It was his first time summitting San Gorgonio! We ran into a few people including an older man coming down from the summit around 6:30am who told us he had started at 10pm. Wow! Another through-the-night hiker!
Part 4. Started at 10:51am with Joe Stevick. There was a nice downhill to start, but headwinds all the way, so we took turns drafting. Unfortunately part way into the ride (31. 5 miles in), in the city of Rialto, the 102 heat really hit Joe S. hard and he had to bail out. I'm so thankful for Joe Nakamura who drove out to the rescue and picked up Joe S., so I could continue the challenge. (and fortunately, after some rest in Stater Brother's grocery store, Joe S was able to recover). I continued on to the Pacific Electric bike trail going from Rialto to Claremont. This was a nice section that was totally removed from cars, AND had drinking fountains periodically, which I used to soak my arm sleeves and leg sleeve coverings, and keep hydrated. The bike section heading uphill to Baldy was absolutely one of the hardest sections of the whole event because the heat was relentless...102 in the city and still high 90's on the mt baldy road.... the final couple miles were super tough for me, but I'm so glad I did it and stayed feeling alright. I was treated to In and Out burger and milkshake from Joe Nakamura and Joe Stevick, about halfway up the mt. baldy road, and got my body temperature cooled back down in the air-conditioned car. By the time I got to Manker flats, my body felt ready to be done!
Part 5. I took a 20-minute nap in the air-conditioned car to let my body cool off and recover from the hot and steep bike ride. My friend Nico then joined me to do the final leg, and Joe Stevick also joined for the first 45 minutes of hiking. Nico had never done Baldy so it was fun to introduce him to the sierra club ski hut trail. I felt tire and slow. I was fine, but I wasn't able to push hard and fast. Whenever I pushed, my heart rate would shoot up and breathing was really tough... maybe that was the altitude accumulation over the course of the event? or just having my body be tired after so many hours! We had a beautiful view at the summit, with stars above, and the city below. Several people were camping right on the summit and we chatted with one of them and got a picture of us on the final summit. As we headed down right off the summit, we got off trail and bit lost, so we ended up hiking back up until we could connect with an official trail that could get us back down to the sierra club ski hut and then to Manker flats. Thankfully once we got on the trail everything went fine to the end: it was just a long long descent that seemed to never end!
Joe Stevic was dozing in the car at the bottom waiting for us. We finished up just under 32 hours, though the garmin got stopped a couple minutes late so it records us officially as 32:01.
SoCal Triple crown run/bike: July 2 to July 3, 2021
Part 1: 3:47 pm start. 15 miles on San Jacinto run/hike=Humber Park Trail Head. (4:01 total time).
Part 2: 8:26 pm start. Bike ride 64 miles from Humber park to Vivian Creek Trailhead. (6:10 total time)
Part 3: 3:21 am start. 18 miles run/hike San Gorgonio from Vivian Creek Trailhead. (6:36 total time)
Part 4: 10:51 am start. bike 64.4 miles from Vivian Creek to Manker flats. (7:28 total time).
Part 5. 7:13 pm start. Final hike/run —8.83 miles (Sierra club hut route starting from Manker flats). (4:34 total time).
Total route:
3:47pm start on Friday July 2.
End: 11:48pm on Saturday July 3.
1 day, 8 hours, and 1 minute on the Garmin...(32 hours and 1 minute)
(but we actually did finish at the trail sign just under 32 hours--we just didn't get the Garmin stopped in time)
Total running miles: 41 miles of trail run/hike.
Total biking miles: 128.5 miles of biking.
I recorded each segment on my Coros watch (buy yours at Run Republic--they are awesome watches! I started with 88% battery, and it did the full 32 hours of our trip no problem!) and I uploaded the segments to my Strava.
Here is the final segment for reference on Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/5576582228
equipment and nutrition:
Bike: Specialized Allez;
Shoes: Hoka speed goats with 1000 miles on them! They have been great shoes for mt runs!
Shirt: Run Republic. Get your running shoes, clothes, and nutrition from Run Republic. Joe Nakamura is the man! https://werunrepublic.com/
Nutrition: a variety of foods including PB&J, goo, nuun, salt caps, hot chicken dumpling soup, pizza, dr. pepper, In n out burger, etc.
Shared album of pictures: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0bJOFSVFJEZTqb
my original chart estimating what I could do in terms of times and distances is below. We ended up being behind schedule at the beginning and opted for Humber park trail head instead of deer springs.
Hector drove us out in his van. Great to start hanging out :-)
Ian slept.
finally made it to SG.
Part 4.
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