We had no problems finding parking right next to the trailhead.  This trail is lightly traveled… the entire day, we saw five mountain bikers and one other hiker. The first part of the trail is an old dirt road (Trabuco Creek Road) in fairly poor condition. The dirt road starts off very steep right away. After about 2 miles it joins the Joplin Truck Road and the trail becomes more scenic. There were a couple of small stream crossings along the way. Midway up the mountain, clouds and fog started to roll in and it started to get cold. There was a storm heading our way and it was going to start raining that night. We had the peak all to ourselves but it was very cold which was unexpected (even though I had brought my puffy jacket) so we didn't stay long before heading down the mountain.  All trails logged 14.8 miles with about 4,900′ of elevation gain. We followed the Modjeska Peak via Joplin  Truck Trail (except we turned right to Santiago Peak at Maple Springs).