All Things Mt. Pinos
There's this beautiful little mountain near Bakersfield called Mt. Pinos. It is only about an hour away, and I had never heard of it until just this past month from Marc and Michael. The mountain is the tallest in the Ventura County at 8,831 ft high, and supposedly a great area to see condors although I have yet to see one. It is a sanctuary from the oppressive heat of Bakersfield with weather in the mid 70's to 80's during the summer.
Also there is a ton to do on this mountain. There is mountain biking, climbing, and hiking all over. Since I've been there 3 times within the last month, I will detail here the last 3 trips. I mostly took pictures of when I went climbing but there are a couple of other ones from the other times.
My first trip up to Mt. Pinos (June 14) was to learn how to mountain bike with Marc and Michael. This pic below was taken with Michaels phone at the top (or very near the peak) of Mt. Pinos. Let me preface a bit. The only biking I really have ever done is biking around my neighborhood as a kid. Mountain biking is not a big thing in Sugar Land, TX... likely because there are no mountains (derp). That being said, mountain biking is much more difficult than neighborhood biking, but also way more fun! Marc was gracious enough to let me borrow one of his awesome bikes so that I didn't have to fail on my $100 walmart bike. Also, they were both super patient with me. It took me about a million tries to figure out how to get on the bike without falling over immediately. Anyways, long story short, the mountain biking was a tough uphill workout and a flying by the seat of your pants kind of experience on the downhill. But I dig it. I've got a ways to go to be on their level, but I think it is way fun and Mt. Pinos was great for it!
My second trip to Mt. Pinos (June 29), was with Marc and Ivan to check out some of the climbing in the area, which is nice and secluded. We only checked out a couple of areas, but they were awesome. Lincoln tagged along for this trip.
Below is the first beauty of a wall that we climbed.
Ivan and Marc setting up toprope.
Lincoln worried for their lives.
Lincoln had a pretty good time, except he wasn't fond of all the sap he got stuck in his paws. Poor little guy kept collecting things in the sap in his paws.
And if Lincoln could rock climb, I think he would.
Whaaaattt? I'm not obsessed with my dog. I swear. I just think he's freakin cute.
Lincoln and Marc hit it off real well.
We all roped up on this first climb here. Easy, fun, long little climb.
Marc trying to eat my dog...
Ivan first up.
Lincoln helping Marc belay.
Getting more sap in his paws.
Lincoln makes friends way easier than I do.
Next up, myself. Doing the high-step.
Over and over. I should probably learn to take smaller steps in my climbing.
Lastly Marc!
We had Ivan run up the route about 2 or 3 more times. Then we went back to the car and found another spot to climb at, which had a bit more of a trickier problem to work on. It was fun. I didn't grab any pictures of it though.
My third trip up to Mt. Pinos was to go hiking with the pup this past Sunday (July 6th). The hike wasn't very long only about 2 miles and 600 ft. from the parking lot to the summit, but it was nice to get out of the heat and be up here with the little man.
See, living in Bako isn't so bad. I find plenty of things to pass my time.
Conclusions:
-Mt. Pinos is rad. I will come here more often since its so close. -Lincoln digs the hiking, but not the sap paws. I need to get him little mountain booties. -I need more money so I can afford a trad rack and now a mountain bike. :)
Cheers.