My day started with a short hike up Burnt Peak, then some driving west toward Frazier Peak, near Gorman off of Interstate-5. Frazier Peak is a big prominent peak with an impressive profile (especially coming in from the east). A decent road works its way to the top and the lookout, so I figured this one would go easy. I had planned to drive part way up and hike the rest. However, all plans were scuttled when the road was gated down at the base, with all access - vehicle as well as foot - banned. A big fire from last year had caused a lot of damage. I walked into the forest service office nearby and the guy there filled me in on all the details. They would be opeining the road in a couple weeks but in the meantime I was shut out. So I decided to head on south toward Reyes Peak, about 30 miles of driving away.

From the little town of Lake-of-the-Woods, I went south on Lockwood Valley Road, heading toward some prominent high ranges to the south. This part of Ventura County is open rangeland with very few residents, but it is very pretty and scenic. I was surprised how stark and desert-like some of the terrain was, so close to the ocean. Obviously a rain-shadow effect: the coast ranges drawing out all the moisture and leaving little for the inland areas. Some parts of Lockwood Valley Road worked through some interesting cliff sections and badlands, with rock spires and other bizarre formations. This was totally unexpected, but very appreciated! I enjoyed this section considerably. Eventually Lockwood Valley Road connected to state highway CA-33, which continued south and wound up into the hills toward Pine Mountain Summit, the highpoint of the highway at just over 4,000 feet elevation ( between mileposts 42 and 43). From here I went left onto Los Padres Forest Road 6N06.

Reyes Peak is the summit of Pine Mountain, itself a big single mountain massif with two principal summits (Mount Haddock being the other, a few miles east of Reyes). Pine Mountain isn't a range so much as it's one of many mountain massifs that make up the coastal ranges, a superset of peaks running from the Bay Area down to the Los Angeles basin. It's a popular camping and hiking destination; I was surprised to find that FR-6N06 was paved. The road itself is a typical mountain road: cut directly into the side of the range, it contours with the ridges and is usually barely one car width wide. Why it is paved was a mystery. Imagine a narrow winding mountain road, with a layer of crumbling asphalt on it; that's how this road looked. There was no engineering involved, no guardrails, no lanes painted on, no grading to promote water run-off, no nothing, just a dirt hardpack with a layer of asphalt. With years of use and little upkeep, many sections of the asphalt were badly torn up, with big potholes, gouges and areas where running water had eroded sections completely away. Ironically, I felt the asphalt made the road more dangerous - giving people a false sense of security. In any case, I went in and took it slow.

About five miles of driving along the ridge the road had gained enough in elevation to go from scrubbier chapparal flora to actual forests of pine. I came upon Pine Mountain campground first, and thought about parking here, setting up a campspot, and making the hike to the summit from here. It would add a couple miles each way but I figured it might be worth it. However, the campground itself wasn't particularly attractive. It was a big cleared area in a small valley. The camp spaces were not clearly marked, and most people simply backed into an open spot, so everyone was on top of everyone else. So I got back on the road and checked out the next campground, Reyes Peak campground, about a mile further. These were much more interesting and scenic camp spaces, but they were all taken. This was a weekend so I couldn't be too surprised. I decided to drive on to the trailhead, another mile past the Reyes campground, and about seven miles total from the highway. The trailhead is well marked with space for about six vehicles. Reyes Peak itself is visible directly ahead, a relatively short hike away. It was about 2 p.m. when I arrived in warmish weather. I got my boots on and headed in.

The first few hundred yards of the trail is the road itself, with evidence of old asphalt as well (why the heck did they pave this road???). Within minutes I was at a trail junction. Reyes Peak trail went left, while another trail went right - the old road, actually. Neither trail was what I wanted. Ironically enough, Reyes Peak trail does not go to the Reyes Peak summit; it stays lower on the ridge and heads east to Haddock and beyond. Instead, I found a faint path heading directly up the open slopes between the two trails. This is what I wanted, and as I hiked higher, the path became much more evident. It's not a maintained trail, but the number of people who have hiked it over the years has made it into a very easy-to-follow use trail.

The trail isn't too long, and in time it surmounted a small rise, at which time I though the summit was in view. The trail then flattened and passed through some open terrain with low scrub and interesting rock sections, and surprisngly sandy soil. Shortly the trail had started up to what I thought was the top, only to come to another rise and again top out, only to see yet a higher area ahead of me. So I marched on, and in this case this was the correct summit. None of it was too far, the whole trip taking about 40 minutes. The actual summit is a pile of rocks with the highest having an interesting (natural?) "O" inscription on it. I signed in the register and enjoyed the views. South were more peaks, including the Sespe Condor Sanctuary to the east and south. To the north the semi-arid Lockwood and Cuyama Valleys opened up to distant peaks. Ocean haze occluded long-distance views, bit overall the views were very pretty. There is a pile of rocks about 200 feet north of the summit that looked nearly as high, so I walked over to check them out but feel afterwards the south rocks (where I had been) is the true summit.

Afterwards I hiked back out to my truck, the whole journey taking just 90 minutes. I drove back slowly, seeing if any camping spaces had opened up, but none had, so I drove out FR-6N06 to the highway, and proceeded south. Along the way I checked out the Chorro Grande trailhead (between mileposts 36 and 37), which is the 'long' way up. There was some camping areas nearby that I thought might be worth a peek, and I found one spot open at the Rose Valley campground - next to a couple who had obviously been at their spot a few days. The man half sat cross-legged on a towel, smoking a joint, listening to his tunes pretty loudly. He looked over at me and croaked out 'welcome, dude', barely able to keep his balance, even while sitting! I figured this place would suck fast so I ended up driving down some more to the Wheeler Gorge campground, which was much larger and set amid much more dense forest cover, with spaces between the spots for privacy. The drive down CA-33 into Ojai was extraordinarily scenic - the coastal mountains seem to form a sheer wall of cliffs. In all the years I had lived in California, I never drove CA-33 in Ventura County (and had been to Ojai just once). What an amazing scenic drive!

The fire closures had put me ahead of my schedule, so the following day - Sunday - I just poked around Ventura, Oxnard and the beaches. I had been battling a cold so the day off felt good, and I hoped the rest would help. I camped that night at Leo Carrillo State Beach then hiked Sandstone Peak the following day.