Tassajera Peak and the nearby Tessajera BM are located in the Los Padres NF
north of San Luis Obispo. They are the two highest summits along a 12-mile
ridge that spans between 
Cuesta Pass
on US101 and SR41 to the northwest. The
south side drains to Chorro Creek and Morro Bay while the north side drains to
the Salinas River and Monterey Bay. Tessajera BM is higher by a mere 2ft, laying
claim to more than 1,200ft of prominence. The peaks are located roughly half way
along the ridge, some 8.5 miles from Cuesta Pass along the windy TV Tower Rd.
A year earlier I had tried to drive my van on this Forest Service Road, only
to be stymied without high clearance. Though paved in the distant past, the road
has seen no service in decades other than to keep it clear of rock and tree
fall. The pavement is 
washed out in many sections with ruts that are
just too nerve-wracking to negotiate without more clearance. It would probably
make for a fine mountain bike ride, but I was armed with just a pair of boots
on the last day of a seven day road trip.
The route starts by climbing some 500ft in about a mile and half, a moderate
gradient. 
Fog had reached to near the height of Cuesta Pass from
both sides, leaving a sea of clouds below me as I climbed higher.
Almost from the start the fog was beginning to 
retreat, but it would
be several hours before it had mostly dissipated. Taking an hour to go the first
2.5 miles, I reached the start of the Cuesta Ridge 
Botanical Area.
It's primary purpose is to preserve a grove of Sargent 
cypress trees.
According to 
the kiosk found there, it is "the largest
grove that can be easily reached by car." I don't know if I should be impressed
by that or not, but I took issue with "easily reached by car" part. I guess it
all depends on how you define "car", but the definition would rule out all the
ones I happen to own. I couldn't really tell these cypress trees from other
varieties, but then I was never very good at tree identification. Still, it was
nice that someone gave them more than a passing thought.
I followed the road as it weaved north along the ridgeline, mostly on the
southwest side, but sometimes on the inland side. There were 
flowers
at a number of locations along the way, the cypresses giving way to more uniform
covering of low chaparral. I found 
a newt plying the road, looking out
of place. How it managed without water up here was a bit of a mystery. By 9:30a
I was in sight of my two objectives. Though 
Tessajera BM was both
higher and closer, I decided to leave it for later. The road traverses the peak
well below the summit on the southwest side. Getting through the chaparral might
prove difficult, so I wanted to have the advantage of seeing the peak from as
many perspectives as possible in order to chose the least demanding brushfest.
Tassajera suffers no such difficulty, the road going to towers atop
its summit. In order to cut some distance off the spiraling route of the main
road, I took the old 
jeep track up the southeast ridge, arriving at
the top around 10:10a.
The highpoint is found outside the several fences that enclose the communication
facilities, so there was no need to contemplate a breach of their defences. The
highest point is actually 
within the base of a nest of trees at
the summit, one of a handful of such clusters found in the area. There
is a fine view to the 
Pacific Ocean, with 
Morro Rock just
visible under the retreating fog. Santa Margarita can be seen to
the east nestled in a wide valley surrounded by other portions of
the National Forest. Cuesta College and the adjacent Mens Jail can be seen to
the south, just peeking out from the residual fog. Not fifteen minutes
later the lands to the south would be almost fog-free, providing a good view of
the Morros stretching 
southwest from Morro Rock to Cerro San Luis
Obispo towards the 
southeast.
Upon leaving the summit, I turned my attention to Tessajera BM. The view of the
northwest side was not encouraging, looking every bit as impenetrable
as it had on the satellite view earlier. There was no new road or trail that
magically appeared. I was back to plan "A" which I had devised from the
satellite view. There is a large clearing on the south side of the road,
southeast of the summit. It appears that at least one route was clipped through
the brush starting from here to reach the SE ridgeline where the brush is
thinner and easier to negotiate. Alternatively, it appears one could start up
from the start of the SE Ridge further east and follow a less brushy route
there. I found the clipped route sufficient, although 
fairly overgrown
by this time. From the start to the top was just over ten minutes, so I really
have nothing to complain about. There was a good deal of 
poison oak
growing along the ridgeline, but it was not hard to dance around it. I found the
1932 
benchmark complete with the misspelling. I
thought perhaps the topo map had simply misspelled "Tassajera", but in fact it
was the benchmark itself that had made the error many years earlier. It was
impossible to guess that I was standing 2ft higher than the other summit, so
I'll just have to trust the surveyors on this one.
Back on 
TV Tower Rd a short time later, I resigned myself to the
nearly two hour haul back to the start. A 
service truck heading to
Tassajera Peak held the only human I saw on the route all day. 
A deer
I startled a few minutes later was the only mammal I noted aside from a few
assorted squirrels. It was 12:45p by the time 
I returned to Cuesta
Pass where I had parked. Another two and half hours of driving would get me home
to San Jose, marking the end of the roadtrip. Today's outing was the least
interesting of the week, but I had no regrets. At least I wouldn't be thinking
about TV Tower Rd from now on when I'm driving south on US101...