🕺A High-Altitude Two-Step: Mt. Pinos & Sawmill Mountain

Peak Bagging Without the Pain Southern California's best-kept alpine secrets! The trek from Mount Pinos to Sawmill Mountain offers a fantastic "two-peak" adventure in the Los Padres National Forest. Because we are starting at the Chula Vista/Nordic Base trailhead at over 8,300 feet, we get to skip the grueling initial ascent and immediately dive into sweeping views. Clocking in at about 7.5 miles round-trip with roughly 1,600 feet of rolling elevation gain, it’s a moderately strenuous hike—mostly due to the high altitude—that will reward us with the rugged beauty of the *Chumash Wilderness*. Vanilla Pines & Condor Skies We start by following a gently sloping dirt access road through alpine meadows to the summit of Mount Pinos (8,831 feet). After checking out the broad peak, we'll continue west to the *Condor Observation Site* for phenomenal views over the San Joaquin Valley. Just past…