Less than a week after hiking San Jacinto, my hiking buddy and I set out to hike Mt. Pinos and Sawmill Mountain. We knew it would be a relatively easy stroll compared to many of the others in the Six Pack of Peaks, and we were looking forward to it. Mt Pinos has such an incredible history and we were excited to know we'd be hiking in the sacred center of the Chumash universe. We were not disappointed. I loved this hike. It was stunningly beautiful with a mixed terrain and landscape. It was incredibly peaceful. And the views off the the peaks and throughout the hike were really stunning. I wanted to continue onto Grouse Mountain but we weren't sure if we had enough water or fuel to last so we turned around. Maybe next time.

The trail was very well marked and we found our way to the peaks relatively easily. The giant cairn on top of Sawmill was a lot of fun to see. I would do this hike again without batting an eye. I wouldn't have known about it if it hadn't been for this challenge, and for that I am very thankful. We were hiking on a weekday but only saw 6 hikers for most of our journey, though as we were descending from Pinos back to our car, many more people were walking up the mountain.

We thought the Sawmill hike would be a satisfying end to our Six Pack challenge, but realized afterward that we weren't ready to be done, so we'll be adding more peaks when the weather and our schedules permit. Next stop: Cucamonga!  Then Gorgonio!