For my upcoming birthday I asked my husband for a Jetboil cooking system. It would be the first item in a long list of backpacking gear that we’re going to need to make the crossover from day hikers to backpackers. Since I’d been looking for an excuse to make the short hike up the little bump called Mt. Akawie (aka Buckhorn Peak if you’re using a Tom Harrison map), we headed up to the mountain to test the new cooking system and spend a quiet morning together.
We hit the trail just after 6 am. After a very short distance we took the path leading up to the peak. There appeared to be a number of fire roads around to explore, but we were ready to get cooking and I couldn’t wait for a hot cup of coffee. The Jetboil system did not disappoint! For breakfast I’d packed a couple of Eggo waffles (my favorite) and brought along a freeze dried breakfast scramble from Mountain House. Overall, it was pretty good. I definitely could live on this stuff for a couple of days in the backcountry. After eating, we got comfortable on one of the large, flat bounders looking towards Waterman Mountain and Twin Peaks and napped for a short while. After a peaceful rest and stomachs full of interesting freeze dried food, we packed up our gear and did some exploring around the mountain both on and off-trail. An unmaintained road/trail took us northeast around the bump and offered views looking towards Pleasant View Ridge. We also saw a lot of deer; mostly doe and one with a young fawn. The road/trail eventually disappeared and we made a scramble up the east side of the mountain before heading back the way we came. It was around 11 am when we got back to the car. We thanked Mount Akawie for the hospitality and headed home to enjoy what was left of our weekend.
This Sunday we hiked the McGill Trail to McGill Campground in Los Padres National Forest. We started out at the north trailhead just off Cuddy Valley Road. The trail climbs a little over 1,500 feet in 3.5 miles at a moderate grade. As soon as we started up, I immediately began to see Coronis Fritillary, Speyeria coronis butterflies. There were tons of these bright orange beauties fluttering along the sides of the trail! There were also many different species of Blues, the tiny thumbnail butterflies that most people probably walk right by without even noticing. It was a warm morning, and I tried to catch a few shots along the trail without zapping my energy by spending too much time in the hot sun. It’s very easy to get caught up trying to get that perfect butterfly shot and forget the sun is blasting down on you. Plus we still had a lot of mileage to cover to reach our destination. We wanted to make it up to the campground before my husband’s HAM radio club would be wrapping up their field day weekend at 11 am. As we got higher in elevation, the wind picked up and helped keep us cool. I believe it was around 10:30 am when we made it to the campground. We said our hellos to the radio club and then took a nice, long relaxing break at one of the picnic tables before heading back the way we came. The McGill trail is a beautiful trail. It’s also popular with mountain bikers, and on this day we passed maybe a handful of riders who were very courteous of us and let us know how many others would be coming along the trail. This was our second visit to the Los Padres National Forest. It’s a very lovely area that we will continue to explore and I really enjoyed this trail.
