McKinley Mountain & San Rafael Mountain
The Hundred Peaks Section of the Sierra Club refers to the McKinley/San Rafael/Santa Cruz trio as the "HPS Big 3". All three can be reached out of the Cachuma Saddle trailhead near Los Olivos, CA. They are doable as a long (~30+ mile) day hike but usually summited as part of a 2 or 3 day backpack trip.
This was my 5th trip to the area and I've had some unfortunate luck with the weather over the years. On my 1st trip, trailhead access was blocked by the closure of Happy Canyon Road. (I found out later that there is a back entrance to the trailhead via Figuroa Mountain Road). No hiking that day.
My second trip was my only summertime visit and my successful summit of Santa Cruz Peak- the most remote of the 3 peaks.
On my third trip it started raining after about an hour and conditions gradually worsened as the day progressed, getting to the point were I was having a difficult time seeing through the rain. I ended up turning back about halfway to McKinley Springs. (No pics from that trip, the camera I had at the time got wet and never functioned again). To top off the miserable day, I returned to the trailhead to find that I had left my car's sunroof wide open.
My most recent attempt was earlier this year when I ran into snow starting near McKinley Spring.
Yesterday was a bit better than the last two trips. No snow and it held off raining until the last couple of hours. Unfortunately, The ridge was once again completely enveloped in clouds and visibility was about 20 feet for most of the day. Despite the weather I was finally able to summit the remaining two HPS Big 3 peaks. This turned out to be somewhat of a disappointing accomplishment as both peaks were completely whited out. I think I used up my luck on my Post Summit trip when the clouds miraculously cleared for the 1/2 hour I was on the peak.
Pics and more commentary: here