The semester at ASU had just ended and naturally, I was getting the highpoint itch. On the docket were the county highpoints for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Both are pretty lengthy and rather than go alone, I hooked up with a fellow county highpointer, Adam the Chemist, who was also interested in gaining these two peaks. He lives in San Diego, so we decided to meet in the little oil town of Maricopa, located about 45 miles southwest of Bakersfield. For me, it was a 510-mile journey from Chandler on the 15th, broken up with a couple hours visiting my brother and his family in Rancho Cucamonga. I was successful in eliciting grins and smiles from my 7-month old niece Emma. I stayed in Maricopa that night. Maricopa reeks of oil and gas; the area is a huge oil producing region, and reminded me very much of the Midland-Odessa area of Texas, except for the presence of hills.

Caliente Mountain, the highpoint for San Luis Obispo county, is located in the southeastern part of the county, in an area very remote from any cities or otherwise. It rises high above the Carrizo Plain, which is an alkaline sink; a large salt flat dominates the lowest part of this long valley. It is a very dry, desolate, remote area and travelers heading up the coast would never realize there is a desert-like region just about 30 air-miles from the coast. I had been in the Carrizo Plain once before, in 1990, and was impressed by its remoteness. Both Adam and I commented that it reminded us of the arid peaks and valleys of Central Nevada.

Early on the morning of the 16th, Adam and I met up, piled our gear (including bicycles) into my truck, and left Maricopa in dense fog, westbound along CA-166 and to Soda Lake Road. Then, it was 29 miles along Soda Lake Road, which was paved for about 20 of the miles. Signs indicate that the unpaved portions of the road are impassable during wet weather. The fog had lifted and we found a sign pointing to the Caliente Ridge. We followed this road up about 7 miles, gaining about 2,000 feet. In places it was steep but I did not need 4wd. The BLM Ranger in the area commented that during rains, the clay in the roads makes the roads treacherous and as slick as ice. The clay apparently sticks to the tires, creating a clay-on-clay interface and reducing friction to near zero. One may as well drive on ice! But we had good clear weather (aside from the fog) and dry conditions, fortunately. We arrived at the ridge around 9 am, and got our gear in order. It is 8 miles one-way to the summit, with an old access road leading about 7 miles of it. But the road is closed to vehicles, so we decided to bike as much as we could and walk the rest.

The road undulates along the ridge, gaining and losing elevation along the way. We biked much of the level and downhill portions and walked our bikes up the steeper parts. The first 2.5 miles of the road looks to be in good shape and appears to be maintained for some vehicular use. Eventually the road crests a small rise and we actually encountered a group of workers building some sort of tower at this bump; their work vehicles were in the area. They were surprised to see us, that's for sure! Beyond this rise the road continues to undulate and meander, coming to an abandoned and wrecked trailer set in a small meadow at about the half-way point. It appears the trailer housed local ranch hands, as the area had some old fencing and water troughs, but I'd say that no one has actively ranched the land in 20+ years. Adam and I made a rest-stop for a few minutes at this site.

Beyond the trailer the road continues with variable quality. It makes a drop to what looked like a heli-pad (?), then up a progressively rockier and sandier track to a stand of pinion, about 2 miles away from the summit. We decided to cache our bikes here and walk the rest. The road, such as it was, gained a small peak from which the true summit was finally visible. The road/track then dropped and regained the main ridge, leading to the summit, which we made around 12:15 in the afternoon. The summit has a decaying shack at the top, used as a lookout years ago during World War II. Today, it's very nearly falling over. The weather was terrific and we relaxed for almost an hour eating lunch and looking out over the valleys. To our south and west was the Cuyama River Valley, much greener, and to our east was the salty and antiseptic Carrizo Plain. The Calientes definitely act as a rain shadow. Numerous mountain ranges were visible in all directions, including the faint band of white way off in the east denoting the Tehachapis and the grand Sierra Nevadas. In all, the one-way elevation gain from the truck to the summit was about 1,300 feet net, a little more gross including the ups and downs.

At about 1 pm, we started back. We picked up our bikes and rode/hiked much of the way. Going out was easier as we had far more downhill bits than up, so we made the 8 miles out in just over 2 hours, arriving at the truck at 3 pm. We relaxed and slowly reloaded everything. We were both a bit beat but feeling pretty good. We left the area and backtracked to CA-166, then down CA-33 to our next objective, Santa Barbara county's Big Pine Mountain. This would be a real monster: 32 miles of hiking and biking, so we made sure to get an early night. Adam cooked up some fabulous concoctions in camp (he is a chef by hobby), and we both slept out under the stars, picking out constellations, planets and in some cases, satellites.