I was camped in the Laguna Mtns of San Diego County. Tom would be joining me mid-morning after dropping Iris off at the San Diego airport for a business trip. I would have time for a few easy summits in the area before Tom arrived and we got to the bigger business of Peak 6,260ft. It would be a pretty gruelling effort, but we would still have time in the afternoon for a few easier ones.
Hays Peak
This summit lies half a mile NW of Monument Peak, the highest summit on the understand how it got on LoJ as it violates the site's objective standards, but there it was and I needed to pay it a visit. The hike is fairly short, taking just over an hour. I started from the
Big Laguna TH off Sunrise Hwy,
joining 
the PCT after half a mile. I followed this for a similar
distance before forking off onto an unsigned 
spur trail leading to Hays
and Monument. An 
old firebreak can be followed along the top of the
escarpment to the summit of Hays. Views stretch 
east and north over much
of Anza-Borrego State Park. There is a good view of Garnet Peak to
the north. Monument Peak and Stephenson Peak look less impressive to
the south. There were several busy 
register books in a rusted
can - I was surprised that so many people would visit this point. After snapping
a few photos, I 
returned back via the same route.
Peak 5,868ft
This summit is found on the west side of the highway, adjacent to El Prado Meadow and the Laguna Campground. I
parked just outside
the campground entrance and walked the 
gated road to the El
Prado Group CG. An historic 
ranger cabin from 1911 lies at the
northwest edge of the meadow, at the base of the peak on its southeast side. I
left the road here to wander cross-country up 
through forest and
then chapparal. With careful route-finding, bushwhacking was kept
to a minimum. I reached the rounded summit in half an hour, finding there were
two points of nearly equal height. I believe 
the southern one was the
highest, but I visited 
the northern point in search of a possible
register. I found none at either site. I was back by 8:55a, giving me just
enough time to drive the short distance to my meeting with Tom at 9a.
Peak 6,260ft
Tom had beaten me to the meeting spot by a few minutes. I informed him we had a lovely bushwhack planned for the day's main event. Not one to lodge a complaint, Tom would only smile and express mock joy at the announcement. We transferred some gear to the Jeep, and leaving Tom's truck where it was, we headed off to the Desert View Picnic Site.
I had attempted this hike the previous afternoon, but had made a grave
route-finding error and run out of time. Armed with recent memories and
a better understanding of the route, I figured we'd be able to knock this one
off in much better fashion today. I was still under-appreciating the effort
it would require, especially for the last mile as the trail disappears and the
serious bushwhacking would take over. Starting at 9:20a, the first hour would
go much as expected - 
along the PCT for half a mile, across
a property boundary at 
a water fountain, along
an old firebreak, and then onto 
an overgrown trail.
By 9:30a we had retraced all 
the route I had managed the previous
evening, leaving us about a mile to go. 
Ducks take over where the
trail becomes unclear, but 
these only last for another 20min or so,
giving out near Pt. 6,190ft. Then the heavy work begins
through thick brush with no clear idea where to go.
On a prevous visit to the nearby Sawtooth Mtns WHP back in 2018, I had assumed
the ducked route would continue to Peak 6,260ft. Not so. We found no sign of
trail, duck or humans over the last hour it would take us. It was nice to have
a companion along, as two brains made better decisions than one. We would
swap leads 
through the brush, with the leader reaching a nasty wall of
impenetrable stuff, then deferring to the other who had veered off on a
slightly more promising angle. Sometimes we would pause to consider options and
postulate about the terrain ahead, pointing out some useful feature or vaguely
waving in one direction or another. Mostly these sessions would serve to give
us a short rest before plunging back into the thickets.
It was 12p when we finally reached the outcrop indicated on PB and LoJ as the
highpoint. It is the western of two small closed contours indicated on the topo
map. We noticed that the Mike Sullivan GPX track we had (that served no value
once the bushwhacking began) went over both points. We did some crude surveying
that suggested 
the eastern point might be higher, and though we didn't
really feel like it, we trudged over to the other point anyway. It turned out to
be easier than it had looked, taking only five minutes, and it had a far better
summit block that goes at 
stiff class 3. We liked this one
much better and decided to leave 
a register on top. There are some
lovely 
desert views to be had from the summit, but we were a bit too
worked out from the bushwhacking to fully appreciate them. After a stay of about
10min, we 
started back, taking 
a different route for about
half of 
the bushwhacking, but finding it no better than the ascent
route. Once we got back to 
the ducked section, things improved, and
once on 
the trail, it got better still. It would be 2:40p by the time
we 
got back to the Jeep, having spent almost five and half
hours on the effort. It was but six miles total with less than 1,500ft of gain
- but a toughie, this one. Later, I would see that John Strauch and six
others from the Monday Maniacs had taken 9hrs for the same hike back in 2015.
In 2016, Michael Sullivan and Eric Su had made a large loop that included the
Wilderness HP and all the spot elevations found enroute, so props for an even
bigger undertaking.
Peak 5,700ft
The summit is located further north along escarpment, about a mile south of Garnet Peak. It's a very easy summit that would take just over 30min for the roundtrip. We started at
the Penny Pines TH south of the peak, quickly
joining the PCT and then leaving that for 
an old firebreak running up
the south side of the peak. It gets a little brushier 
higher up, but
no real bushwhacking. We found a register left by Bob McS 
in 2021.
There is a nice view of Garnet Peak to 
the north, a summit I climbed
back in 2005. I suggested to Tom that he might appreciate Garnet better than
the next one I had in mind. He agreed, so we parted ways for a short while after
returning to 
the TH.
Peak 5,764ft
This one is found a few miles west of Garnet Peak, on the west side of the highway. It would take about 50min for the roundtrip, starting from the Pioneer Mail Picnic Site. The Pine Mtn Trail starts nearby, at the junction of Sunrise Hwy and Skyline Dr. A shortcut from the highway allows one to cut off the beginning portion of the trail. I followed the good trail to the south side of Peak 5,764ft, then
branched off to follow 
a use trail that goes to this
minor summit. I found it amusing that the last two entries in
the register included Paul Garry and Laura Newman. Small world. I
returned the same way, finishing up at 5p. Tom was
already there, having made quick work of Garnet with some jogging. I
suggested he could easily do Peak 5,764ft while I went off to find a campsite,
so again we split up. We would end up camping at Kwayymii Point along the
Pacific Crest another mile to the north. The wind was blowing strongly across
the paved cul-de-sac on the edge of the escarpment, but we were able to drive
a short distance further on the dirt road (also the PCT) to get out of the
wind behind the road cut in the hillside. It would have made a lovely view
campsite, but it too windy and too cold to hang about outside, so we retreated
to our respective vehicles for the night...
Continued...