I spent the night at Mt. Pinos campground enjoying some clear skies and good company with a good friend from college. After breakfast, we made the short drive to the trailhead for our planned hike to Sawmill. Unfortunately, breakfast wasn’t settling well, so I kept a more relaxed pace to see if things might settle themselves. The hike up to Mt. Pinos is pretty mellow, so I knew I had some time to see if my stomach calmed down. We reached the summit without any other incidents and snapped some photos. The summit sign was MIA, but no biggie. 

We continued on to the Mount Pinos Condor Observation Site and I sat for a bit. An incident radio station had been set up to assist the firefighters battling the Apache fire to our west. Neither Ted nor I saw any smoke from in. I was feeling better and we began our descent to the saddle between Mt. Pinos and Sawmill. Having done this peak several times, I was comfortable with continuing.

We worked our way up to the summit of Sawmill and had a nice long rest. The smoke from the Borel fire, east of Bakersfield was clearly visible (later in the day, it may have. Triggered a pyrocumulus). After chatting with another 6 Pack of Peak challenger, we set back. While I was better, I was not at 100%, so we took a few breaks along the return. The trail had become more active as the day wore on.

Back at the car, we did the 7.3 miles with a moving time of 3:12. We drove back down the mountain to grab some deli sandwiches for lunch and some more firewood for my campfire later that night. Ted had commitments Sunday morning, so he packed up his tent and headed home.