We had planned to drive up Saturday afternoon, on October 22nd, after some other obligations, but ended up taking longer than we thought. We also didn't think it would quite as cold as it was! Our goal was to get a good night's sleep before our Sunday morning hike, lol!

As it turned out we didn't get to Mount Pinos Campground until 11 PM. The clear night sky showed off an exceptional Milky Way, but the cold, gusting wind made camp setup a bit challenging. By the time we got the tent up and everyone tucked in their beds, it was midnight! The wind proceeded to try to blow us off the mountain and the temperature dropped below freezing. Despite our down blankets, I woke up freezing before 5 AM. I got up and ran the car to get the heater going, and all the kids slowly trickled in after me. I cooked breakfast in the trunk, and then my husband and I broke camp in record time. We camp a lot and are good and setup and breakdown, but this was definitely our record!! We were seriously motivated by the freezing wind and warm car! So much for climbing this one “not tired”! Lol! At least we tried!

It was only a few minutes drive to the trailhead, and we took our time getting bundled up! Since we did an overnight, we brought our dog Peanut along for this one. She dad a great time! The trail was actually pretty easy and would have been an easy hike if it wasn't so cold and windy. The forest and meadows were beautiful, and we only saw a couple other people on the trail. After summitting Sawmill Mountain, we summitted Mount Pinos, since it only added about 10 minutes to our hike back to the car. Mount Pinos, at 8,847 feet, is actually taller than Sawmill Mountain, 8,822 feet. We also enjoyed learning about the Chumash and other Native American groups from placards along the trail.

Our unexpected gift was the ice! About a mile into the hike, we noticed little rectangle shards sporadically on the ground. At first I thought it was glass, but when I picked it up, I realized immediately that it was ice crystals. I hurried to show the kids how pretty they were, and our oldest son, looked up and wow'd in awe! The forest was mostly pines, and each individual pine needle was coated in a fine layer of ice, as the sunlight passed through, it made the trees sparkle like fairy lights! It was amazingly pretty! We couldn't stop pointing it out as we hiked. During the larger gusts of wind, the ice would whirl off the trees and rain down on us. We all tried to catch one in our mouths, but only our middle son succeeded! My closest attempt hit my cheek and another my shoulder! Our daughter had one land on her forehead!