I've been working on the Ventana 15 Peaks list off and on for about half a decade. 
One of the more difficult summits on that list is Pinyon Peak, a remote highpoint situated in the deep wilderness a few miles behind Junipero Serra.

Junipero Serra Peak

Junipero Serra itself is a 12 mile outing with a reasonably hefty elevation gain.  From the JSP summit, one then follows an old abandoned roadbed until it gradually dissapears as it decends into Bear Canyon.  The descent into the canyon and subsequent climb to the Pinyon/Bear ridgetop are a brutal chapparal bushwack along the faded remains of an ancient roadbed.  Once the ridge is gained, one must then plow through 2 miles of overgrown trail to reach the Pinyon summit.

2 years (and 1 day) ago, I made my first attempt at the traverse from JPS to Pinyon.  I had no real expectations of making the peak that day, but was planning on scouting out the route and determining the feasibility of a summit bid.  Much to my suprise and by complete coincidence, I ran into another party deep in the wilderness.  This group, led by Dave McMillan, had taken several trips over several seasons to scout, tag, and prune the old route to Pinyon.  I tagged along with them as far as Bear Mountain, but turned back as it was too late for a summit bid.  (Dave and company, who had camped midway, continued onto the peak and were thus the first known party to summit Pinyon since the road was reclaimed by the wilderness)

Now armed with first hand knowledge of the route and taking advantage of this weekend's full moon, I headed out for a second attempt.

Pinyon Peak

This ended up being one of the longest and nist exhausting outings I'd ever undertaken- 24 total miles (12 on established trails, ~8 on forest roads/firebreaks of varying conditions, and probably 3-4 miles of chapparal bushwack), 8500 feet of elevation gain, and 20 total hours on the trail.

Pics and trip report are here

2 more Ventana peaks to go- Kandlebinder and Black Cone.  (I've attempted Kandlebinder twice prior and not yet taken a stab at Black Cone.  Hope to get to both of those this year)