The last day of a 3-day volleyball tournament would be the shortest one with only two matches before the girls were done. The first wasn't until 11am which gave me some time in the morning to tag a handful of easy summits in Orange County's San Joaquin Hills. Early morning fog negated views for the first several points I visited, but eventually I got above the fog for fine views and warming conditions.
French Hill
Located in the Turtle Rock neighborhood east of UC Irvine, this is a small hill that seems to have been left undeveloped as open space. I parked in a neighborhood on Rippling Stream and followed a use trail up from
the south side. Found a big 
pile of rocks at the summit.
The experience was completely shrouded in fog and
uneventfulness.
Turtle Rock Park HP
This summit appears only on PB, not in LoJ since it has no official name and very little prominence. I parked on Galileo and utilized an
association trail - concrete, 
lighted and well-maintained on
the east side of the highpoint. This got me to a roughly eroded use trail
going up the south side to the highpoint. The summit area has a problem with
graffiti and attempts to curtail it, leaving the 
summit rocks painted
in very unnatural hues of blue, yellow and brown. Not sure which
is worse. Another fogbound summit.
Signal Peak
This is the highpoint of the San Joaquin Hills with almost 800ft of prominence. The summit is home to multiple telecom towers and not exactly open to the public, but access is pretty easy. Best to park on Ridge Park Rd near the corner of W. Coastal Peak. I parked on
the latter and had the security
guard for the nearby gated community come chasing after me to tell me I couldn't
park where I did (though signs clearly indicated parking was restricted
beyond where I parked), but after assuring her I'd only be 15min, she
let it slide and went back to her booth. I walked up the 
pave road to
the summit, explored the higher points around a couple of
underground reservoirs, then visited the summit rocks to the northwest.
Here I was well above the fog layer and had open views, but looking out on
row after row of expensive suburban homes didn't really do much for me.
To 
the north one could see across
the LA Basin to the San Gabriel Mtns with snow on Mt. Baldy.
Peak 914ft
Another PB-only summit with little prominence, really just a point along a ridge dropping southwest from Signal Peak. It is easily reached with a short hike from Vista Ridge Dr to the north. Signs at the
gated dirt road
indicate No Trespassing, but it seems to be a regularly used route to
walk out along 
the ridge for views overlooking the ocean. Fog
below blocked the ocean views, but it was a nice hike nonetheless if one can
ignore all the 
luxury homes above you on land that one can't help but
think would have been better used as Open Space.
Moro Ridge BM
I next returned to Ridge Park Rd and drove to its western end where I found the Bommer Ridge Trail
West Entrance, a TH for the Laguna Coast
Wilderness Park. This is another popular mountain biking park and I decided to
use mine to visit four PB-only summits within 
the park along
the ridgeline that forms the backbone of the San Joaquin Hills. Three
of the summits were within closed areas which I found rather annoying. Not
because the areas were closed, mind you, but that someone would add these
insignificant bumps to PB knowing this. I left these unvisited, bypassing them
along the fireroad to reach 
the top of 
Moro Ridge BM. It was
a nice bike ride, even if a little short at only about 35min,
but it was time to head back to the tournament site to watch some volleyball.
They won both matches they played today, then packed up to head off to the
airport. I drove to the second tournament site to pick up my wife who was
reffing there and took her to the John Wayne Airport to join our daughter for
the flight home. I then headed to the Puente Hills to tag a few more summits
with the few hours of daylight remaining.
Puente Hills HP
A No Trespassing summit, but one regularly ignored. I approached from the north starting from a neighborhood cul-de-sac at
the end of Vantage Pointe
Dr. 
The top is home to a pair of
communication towers surrounded by a formidable fence. There is no reason to
go inside the bulldozed tower complex, however. There are two closely spaced
points vying for the highpoint, the one to the south has no tower. Both summits
are enclosed by a second, outer gate, but this one is easy to breach since
a whole 
section of the fence
is missing. Lots of 
lupine in bloom and plenty of
green grass on my short visit that took all of 20min.
Peak 1,416ft
Another summit with
communication towers
surrounded by a fence. This one lies
within a Habitat Authority Wilderness Preserve. I started from the northwest
at the 
end of Gotera Dr. One hikes up a bit of old pavement to reach
the 
Wilderness Preserve, turning east. Bikes welcome here, too, but I
was on foot for the short hike. More flowers, green grass and lovely
eucalyptus trees along the fireroad
I traveled on the summit ridgeline. The fence here is not so formidable as
the last. The highpoint is inside as is the 
LA County benchmark.
Workman Hill
This was the last summit I visited, located near the western edge of the Puente Hills. The surrounding area is also part of the
Habitat Authority
Wilderness Preserve. There is a trailhead on 
the north side
of the peak along
Turnbull Canyon Rd. The hike is fairly short, taking all of ten minutes to
reach the top. The highpoint is located under a transmission tower where the
summit has been bulldozed some. I interrupted 
a young couple
who were taking
in the romantic late afternoon views off the east side overlooking Hacienda
Heights. I had hoped to get one more summit before the day was through but
found I was running out of time and decided to save it for another time. I
drove north 
through LA
Sunday evening traffic, returning to the Soledad Canyon
area to spend the night. Patrick was to meet me in the area for a few more days
of hiking before I needed to return to San Jose. Good times...
Continued...