Mount Pinos and Sawmill Mountain are adjacent peaks along a ridge of mountains known as the San Emigdio Mountains separating Kern and Ventura counties. The peaks are located in the Los Padres National Forest about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. The county line separating Kern and Ventura counties barely passes south of Sawmill Mountain (placing Sawmill inside Kern county) and barely north of Mount Pinos (placing Pinos in Ventura county). If the county line was just 500 feet more north or more south, both peaks would be located inside the same county. As it is, both peaks can easily be done as part of one moderate day hike. Normally, Mount Pinos is done first as it is closer to the trailhead, then Sawmill is done second. The peaks are about 1.5 miles apart.

The trip began with the long, uneventful drive along Interstate-10 on Friday October 13th, from Phoenix to Rancho Cucamonga and my brother's place. Primary on my agenda was to visit my little niece Emma, now 5 months old and getting exponentially cuter as each month passes. My mom also was in town from Henderson NV, visiting Emma as well, and as it was my Mom's birthday, I could wish her a happy birthday, too. Very convenient. My brother had Marines duty that weekend and I missed him but his wife Diana was holding the fort and she was most gracious. Emma couldn't figure out what the deal was with my beard at first but she soon warmed to me and broke out in big smiley grins as I goofed off for her entertainment. Just a lovely little girl!

Early Saturday the 14th, I hit the road, traveling along I-10 to I-210 and then on to I-5 north of Los Angeles. For this hike I would be joined by my old college roommate Jeff, who lives in Culver City with his wife and 6 cats. For Jeff, this would be his introduction to the sexy world of highpointing. We met at a Denny's in Santa Clarita, battling the crowds of literally hundreds of teenagers who apparently were all heading up to Magic Mountain just a few miles north. The parking lots around the Denny's and other establishments were packed with big buses. Jeff and I then drove up in my truck. We left I-5 at the Frazier Park exit, headed west to the town of Lake-of-the-Woods, then up the curvy roads to the Mt Pinos parking area. Well, as we drove up this road, we saw signs saying that we needed an "Adventure Pass" to park anywhere, but that meant backtracking back to the Ranger Station in Lake-of-the-Woods, which we just did not feel like doing. So I decided to take my chances and park without the pass (more later). The road ends at a wide parking area at 8,300 feet elevation. Today was the first day of deer-hunting season and there were numerous hunters walking about. There were also lots of hikers and mountain bikers so we didn't feel particularly concerned about the hunters. We stayed on the trails and wore orange anyway.

The hike to Mt Pinos is along an old dirt road that is gated shut at the parking area. It's still used since there are radio towers up top. We hit the trail at 10:30 am. The weather was pretty cool, very clear and calm. There was patchy snow on the ground, which was quite surprising since these mountains don't get a whole lot of snow, and certainly not in October, so this was a rarity. The road is well graded and has a very gentle grade. We walked at a leisurely pace and eventually came up to the summit of Mt Pinos, amid some radio towers, around 11:15. There is a benchmark in the center of the rounded summit and a witness marker located in a jumble of rocks, which to our eyes seemed to be the true highpoint. We separately surmounted the rocks to get photos, then took a lunch break, absolutely not in any hurry. Looking north we could gaze down almost 8,000 vertical feet into the fog-shrouded Central Valley. Way off to the Northeast we could make out the Sierras and the Tehachapis. Ventura County was ours! We also made the brief walk about 200' northwest from the summit to about the 8,820 elevation level, which put us near the Kern county line and gave us one of the two possible Kern highpoints.

For Kern county, we continued west along the road another 100 yards to the old Wildlife Viewing Site, where the Condors used to be caught and released back in the 1970s-80s. From here a trail proceeds west and switchbacks down to a saddle between Pinos and Sawmill, losing 500 feet in about 0.75 mile. Most of this portion was amid bare slopes. From the saddle, we gained somewhat steeply up the otherside in denser forest (mainly firs) until the trail leveled again. Leaving the trail, we hiked cross country briefly to the obvious ridge, then followed it to a large cairn and the summit of Sawmill Mountain, the second of the two Kern highpoints. This cairn is huge, and we added to it, rested again, took photos and looked out at the other mountains like the Coast Range to the west and the Temblors to the North. Very nice.

All along, the weather was magnificent, but it did start to get breezy so we decided to get moving. We descended to the saddle, re-ascended up most of Mt Pinos, then simply walked out back to my truck. The entire round trip was a little over 4 hours and 6 miles. And I was cited for not having an "Adventure Pass" permit. I figured I would. It turns out that all I needed to do was take the citation to the Ranger Station, pay for a pass (no penalty), and mail the citation and the pass to the address on the citation and all would be resolved. All in all I paid the same amount, but I was not amused by the signs mentioning the need for a pass AFTER we'd passed the ranger station, and also the phone number given on the signs was wrong. Hence my decision to take a chance.

One last interesting detail: Today, October 14th, is my mother's birthday. I also did a highpoint on my dad's birthday (Hualapai Mtn, Mohave County AZ, May 13) and my own birthday (Black Mesa, Navajo County AZ, June 4th), and missed my brother's birthday by one day (Santiago Peak, Orange County CA, July 23; his birthday is the 24th). Only my sister's birthday (July 31) was significantly missed by me doing a highpoint. This is proof, I believe, that I have my priorities straight.