My original plan for today was to attempt the traverse from Junipero Serra over to Bear Mountain and Pinyon peak. I tempered these goals when I found several feet of snow on the peak and ended up just doing the morning ascent of the Monterey county highpoint.

I left the Mountain View around 3am and headed south towards the Hunter Ligget base, arriving there a bit after 5am. The creek crossings were closed and I had to take the long Milpitas road detour to get to the Memorial Park campground. Noone was around at the campground or the trailhead when I arrived.

It was 35 degrees and pitch black when I left the trailhead via headlamp. There was should have been a quarter moon around someplace, but it wasn't visible from the valley. The early parts of the trail were rain saturated and very muddy. There were a half dozen creeks active that would be bone dry later in the season.

I had a bit of a scare about a mile up the trail. I heard a rustling next to me and looked over to see that I had almost stepped on a skunk. It looked up at me and then (luckily) scampered away.

The trail dried out considerably once it left the valley floor and I made it to the saddle by 8am...

(Prior trips to Junipero Serra can be found here and here)