We woke up early to avoid LA traffic and were one of the few first people to arrive at the trailhead. It was much colder than I expected it to be for a summer day, but we warmed up quickly as we began the gradual ascent. We had the trail practically to ourselves, only coming across a handful of other hikers. It was a very clear day, the sky was a nice blue compared to the smoggy skies in the city. There was a point where it seemed we were walking through a meadow which took me by awe. We reached Mt. Pinos relatively quickly. After hitting that peak, we made our way down and back up to Sawmill Mountain. This was even more secluded than the first part of the trail. The steep decline was a little challenging, but fortunately I brought my trekking poles with me this time. The foliage changed as the trail became narrower. We were amongst more wildflowers and pine trees. On arriving at Sawmill, we had the peak to ourselves and sat to enjoy some snacks. The cairn was bigger than I expected from photos I had seen of it. We started to see more people on our way back to our car. At this point it was relatively warm, so we were happy to have it done by lunchtime.