Junipero Serra Peak, the Monterey County highpoint, is quite a haul from my home in Chandler, nearly 700 miles one way, so I worked in a trip to this peak around my niece Emma's first birthday. I was just finished with teaching at ASU with a couple weeks off before summer teaching started, so I had a few days open. I drove west from Phoenix in a hot headwind, which made for a slow, tedious, hot and expensive drive (needing to get more gas than usual). I spent an hour or two at my brother's place in Cucamonga, playing with Emma (who was trying to eat rocks from the garden), then crashing at my friend Schneider's place in Monrovia for the night. The next day I made the surprisingly long 250-mile drive to Paso Robles along the US-101, staying in a cheap hotel for the night, setting myself up for the next day's drive and hike to Serra Peak.

I awoke at 4 a.m. on May 11th and got going toward Serra Peak. From US-101 I went to the town of Bradley, then took Jolon Road to the Hunter-Liggett Military Reservation, then some smaller roads west and north to the Los Padres Forest Boundary. Another few miles of twisty driving brought me to the trailhead at "The Indians", some natural stone formations in the area. I geared up and started hiking in around 6:15 a.m., the only person here apparently. The land here is very hilly and mountainous, with tight canyons and heavy forest and undergrowth. It was already rather warm. It is surprising to note that I was no more than 10 air-miles from the ocean at this point, but blocked by one or two significant ridges. Hence, the heat.

The initial portion of the hike was along the base of the main range, mostly level with some ups and downs as I crossed about six creeks and a dozen drainages. Soon, the trail bent left (northish) and I spooked a skunk, who was fortunately too far away to spray me. He just ambled off as I banged my walking stick against a rock to make noise. The trail began to gain steadily at this point, crossing some more streams and making good gain up a ridge. I came to a sign in a meadow which mentioned the Santa Lucia Lookout at the summit as being four miles away. I took a snack break here.

From this sign, I continued up the steepening ridge, leaving the forest cover for dense, chest-high chaparral. The sun was finally high enough over the mountains to give me direct sunlight, and I could feel the temperatures start to rise. I arrived at a saddle at elevation 4,200 feet, about 2,000 feet above where I started. Another smaller sign at the junction pointed to Serra Peak, still two miles away. I could see the Santa Lucia Lookout tower, just barely protruding above the summit, still a good 1,700 feet above me. I still had much work to do. It was now about 8:00 a.m.

I continued northeast up a series of long switchbacks through very dense chaparral and occasional leafy trees toward another saddle at elevation 5,440 feet, finally arriving a little bit after 9. All was well, but I certainly was getting a good aerobic workout. From here, the summit was actually obscured behind a smaller foreground peak, but the trail mercifully leveled a bit as it contoured behind this smaller peak and up behind the main summit. I found a nice big fallen tree to sit on and relax, just before I made the final hike to the top, where I arrived right at 10 a.m., 3 hours and 45 minutes after starting, and almost 4,000 feet of gain. This was a biggie!

The summit is broad and long. The Santa Lucia Lookout tower is in disrepair and this area wasn't too attractive. I surmounted a couple of rock piles in the area and nearby as well. The flies were intense and it was getting warm, so I didn't stay too long. At 10:15 I started down. Back at the saddle at 5,440 feet, I saw two hikers coming up, the only other people I saw the whole day. I made good time coming down and was back to the first sign about 11:30. But it was now just downright hot. I still had about 2 miles along the meadowy level path to go, so it wasn't terribly exhausting, but the heat, in the 90s, was really tough. I just took it slow and arrived back to my truck at 1 p.m. I should make it clear I carried LOTS of water, gatorade and a protein drink. I was definitely well-stocked. If it hadn't been so hot I might have shaved off a half-hour from my time. Total statistics: 12 miles round trip, about 4,000 feet of gain, and 6 hours, 45 minutes on the route. This was a nice peak to get, and a surprisingly remote one, too.

From here, I drove back to Paso Robles, then took a different route to Rancho Cucamonga, taking CA-46 over the Temblor Range through Cholame (WHere James Dean punched his ticket) to the vast flatness of the San Joaquin Valley and Interstate-5, then across Bakersfield, up through Tehachapi to Mojave, then down through Palmdale and the "back-way" to Interstate-15 to Cucamonga. The mileage was about the same (250 miles) but I completely avoided Los Angeles and probably two hours of sitting in Friday night traffic.

The next day we partied, celebrating little Em's one year of adorableness. It was a lot of fun and enjoyable to watch her make mush of her cake. A day later I made the hot and boring drive home to get my head right for some summer teaching chores.