From my home in Chandler, Arizona, it is almost exactly 700 miles one-way to this peak, so I broke it up over a couple of days and timed it to coincide with my beautiful niece Emma's first birthday party. I left Arizona on May 9th, after just completing the semester at ASU, and hit the road about noon. It was already hot for mid-May, about 105 in Phoenix and close to 110 near the Colorado River. A strong headwind most of the way to Blythe slowed me down, and the gas cost $2.29 per gallon for Regular in Blythe. Oh well. In a few months, I'm sure I'll think that's a good deal! I arrived at my brother's place in Rancho Cucamonga around 6 p.m., spent a couple hours adoring Emma, watched the Kings lose their hockey game, then drove on a bit to my buddy Schneider's place in Monrovia, where I spent the night. The next day, I made the 250-mile drive up US-101 to Paso Robles, where I stayed the night in prep for the next day's hike. I hit much fog around Ventura and Santa Barbara, but the weather after San Luis Obispo to Paso Robles was nice and warm.

I awoke at 4 a.m. on May 11th and got going toward Serra Peak. It's 65 miles from Paso Robles to the trailhead. From US-101 in Bradley, I 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". I geared up and started in around 6:15 a.m. 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 6 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 4 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 temps start to rise. I arrived at a saddle at elevation 4,200, about 2,000 feet above where I started. Another smaller sign at the junction pointed to Serra Peak, still 2 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 northeasterly 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 somewhat 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, 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 aerobic or 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.

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 (James Dean's death place) 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 2 hours of sitting in Friday night traffic.