Beautiful day for my third peak in the SoCal challenge. For some reason, neither Apple Maps nor Google Maps would give us the correct directions to the Mount Pinos Nordic Center, so we ended up following the road signs past Frazier Park. The road up to the nordic center is paved the entire way, and both gates were open. No snow on the road, and only a few small patches of ice.

At the trailhead, there was only one other vehicle parked. The outside temperature reading on my car said it was 43 degrees Fahrenheit; warmer than we anticipated.

We gathered our gear and hit the trail at 8:05am. The trail was snow-covered, but it was frozen pretty solid and the first section of the trail is pretty gently sloped so we didn't bother putting on micro spikes (though we both had trekking poles). Our tracks were the only fresh ones, and eventually we were breaking trail as we reached the plateau before Mount Pinos. We got slightly off trail, but the tower on Mount Pinos provided a good landmark to get us back on track.

We stopped at Mount Pinos — the highest point in Ventura County — for the obligatory summit selfies, then sauntered over to the wildlife overlook. From here, the trail drops down the north-western side of Mt Pinos. We were able to follow the first few switchbacks, and then the trail disappeared under the snow with no tracks to follow. We donned our snowshoes and made our way down. I had downloaded the GPS data and map to GaiaGPS on my iPhone, and it helped us see where we were in relation to where the trail should be. Basically we travelled more directly downhill (no switchbacks) until we were able to find traces of the trail.

The rest of the hike, the trail was pretty easy to follow, even with the fresh snow. There's enough of a trail “footprint” to keep on track. The one exception is the spur that heads out to Sawmill Mountain. We missed the trail turn off and headed cross-country until we could see the tall cairn that marks the summit.

Sawmill Mountain is the highest point in Kern County, so two peaks and two county highpoints in one hike. And the views were amazing. It was quiet, windless, and clear. We could even see the snow-capped crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains across the Central Valley.

On our way back to the car, we simply retraced our steps in the snow. We ran into one trail runner and a man on cross-country skis with his dog, but other than those two people, we had the mountains to ourselves.