I was on my second day of a quick swing through the peaks of Southern California. I had been successful on Mount Baden-Powell, but was battling a very sore throat and the makings of a cold, so after my Baden-Powell ascent yesterday, I stayed the night at a hotel in Palmdale, trying to sleep off whatever bug was in me. When I awoke this morning, I felt okay, having slept for almost 14 hours, but I didn't feel great. My energy was fine, and I wasn't nauseous, but I could tell I was not in good overall shape. Nevertheless, I still felt up for a couple short hikes today, with plans to visit Burnt Peak and Reyes Peak, both tucked away in the Transverse Ranges near where Ventura and Los Angeles Counties come together. I drove west from Palmdale along county highway N-2 through the little settlements of Leona Valley and Elizabeth Lake, entering into a well-defined canyon, now on Angeles National Forest lands. This canyon was in fact the famous San Andreas Fault; the possibility of the "big one" striking at any moment was on my mind. I could use some excitement!

My immediate goal was to find Bushnell Summit, a highpoint along the highway from which Forest Road 7N23 went to the south toward Burnt Peak. There is no marker at this point of the road, so the first highpoint along the highway that felt right, I stopped, and luck was with me: it was the right place. I found the forest road marker for the road and started in. The drive up covered just over 3 miles on pretty-good road, and I parked in a large clearing, which ironically was a part of the Pacific Crest Trail. And there was Burnt Peak, a simple summit about 2 air-miles to the south. I could see its various towers easy enough. It was about 9 a.m. when I started my hike. The actual hiking route would cover about 2.9 miles one way.

The trail to the top is a road, gated shut at the clearing, but clearly kept up so that the workers can travel in when needed. For the first mile or so it stayed mostly level, dropping just a little bit, passing around a small hill in the process. Around this hill, roughly halfway in on the hike, the road drops dramatically to a low point, probably a good overall 200-foot decline. At this point Burnt Peak was plainly obvious directly above me to my left, while Little Burnt Peak was to my right; the road wound up through a pass between the two. The rest of the road wiggles and switchbacks up the back side of the peak, where two last hard switchbacks lead to a set of buildings on the top. It had taken me just over an hour to make the walk.

The summit is home to an antenna site for the FAA, presumably one of the many sites used to track the multitude of planes in the sky. The top is graded flat and grass-covered; the main unit looks like a bowling pin standing about 10 feet tall, surrounded by a whole bunch off little apparati. The whole thing is surrounded by a fence, and signs on the fence give the usual warnings about tampering with the antenna and what may happen to you if you do. I most certainly stayed well away from the antennae. The top was overall very flat. It was easy enough to scamper up three feet of hillside, tag the flat top, stay a good 25 feet away from the antenna stuff, and return to the safe side of the fence. Whether I actually did I won’t say. But I did walk the perimeter of the fence. The views to the south were the nicest, where the hills ran off in parallel lines, in decreasing size and lighter hues of blue haze. Once back to the road I started my walk down. There were some workers off on one of the side antenna structures, but I paid them no mind and I doubt they even saw me. The walk back out took a shade over an hour, and the whole journey took me 2.5 hours.

Burnt is an interesting peak, its lone claim to fame being it has sufficiently high prominence to put it on the California list. Another nearby peak, Liebre Mountain, has a summit elevation statistically the same as Burnt’s (it lacks a spot elevation). Some friends of mine made an ad-hoc survey study to compare heights of the two summits and deemed Burnt higher. If it ever comes to pass that Liebre is actually higher, well then, I’ll come back and ‘do’ Liebre, which can be driven to the top. Otherwise, Burnt toils in anonymity, stuck far back in a jumble of peaks not readily obvious from the nearby area.

Back to my truck I felt alright, and I drove back out to the highway and on into Gorman, my plan to visit Frazier Mountain, another prominence leader. Alas, the whole peak was closed to everyone until Memorial Day (two weeks away) due to last year’s fire damage and the need for the workers to cut down some more problem trees lest someone get injured. The nice forest guy at the ranger station filled me in on all this. This also shut me out of nearby Alamo Peak as well. Fortunately Reyes Peak was still open, so I headed on toward Reyes. The story continues on Reyes Peak.