5-21-2022

What an awesome hike yesterday with a few of the Hike Beyond the Hills Misfits. We started our hike at 0720 from the Rock Camp Campground. Our goal was to complete the 3-2-1 Challenge (three peaks, two counties, in one day), while also completing another peak from the Six Pack of Peaks Challenge, by using a different approach than what most use. We ended our day with 9.75 miles in 7 hours (includes breaks and lengthy stays at each summit), and we had about 2,670 feet in elevation gain.

Instead of using the Nordic Base as a trailhead we used Rock Camp Campground near Cerro Noroeste. This allowed us to not only avoid hiking on the dirt road for the first and last 1.5 miles, we also avoided a lot of the crowds. Most of the hikers we saw were as we traversed from Sawmill to Mount Pinos and back to Sawmill.

The hike on this side starts off with a steep ½ mile decent, before climbing up about 1.5 miles to the summit of Grouse Mountain. Here we had the fortune of running into another SoCal Six Pack of Peaks “Finisher” Tim Falk who had just finished his 9^th peak on Sawmill Mountain. After taking a snack break and some summit photos, we head back down the trail and then up to Sawmill Mountain which was another 1.2 miles.

At Sawmill we started seeing a few more hikers working their way from the Nordic Base and either heading back or continuing on to Sawmill. Again, more snacks, photos and conversations with other hikers. As we began and continued on our 2 mile traverse to Mount Pinos, our final peak of the day, we ran into even more groups of hikers out either enjoying the day, completing the challenge or both. It was getting a little busy.

Mount Pinos turned out to be our highlight of the day. We met lots of other hikers, became friends and took pictures with Luna (black lab, I believe). Once Luna and her crew left the summit, Buffy (some sort of Maltese Poodle) showed up at the summit. Buffy stole the show as she posed for picture after picture for her owner and for others.

As we began our nearly 5 mile trek back to our cars, I ran into another hiking friend, SoCal Six Pack of Peaks Ambassador and fellow challenger Sonia. Sonia is also a hike lead and Ambassador for Hiker Babes. It was great to spend a few minutes catching up before continuing down from Condor Lookout and then back up toward Sawmill. One of the great parts about this route is, since you begin the hike with a steep ½ mile descent, you finish with a steep ½ mile ascent! 😉 😉

Another great adventure on the trails with some of our Hike Beyond the Hills Misfits. For me it was my 9^th Peak of the 2022 SoCal Six Pack of Peaks Challenge, my 5^th summit of Sawmill (4^th 3-2-1 challenge) and my 35^th hike of the 52 Hike Challenge 2022.