Carol, Margaret, Ralph, and Ashe (TUS) along with Virginia spent the day on Mount Pinos finding flowers, chatting, lunching, and hiking.
Virginia and Ralph arrived at Ashe’s at 9:00 a.m. where we piled into the Volvo and drove down the hill to pick up Carol then on to Carpinteria to get Margaret on board. We decided to drive south on Hwy. 101, in on Hwy. 126 to Interstate 5, then up to the Mount Pinos exit. A short stop at a Subway for Ashe to grab a turkey sandwich and tank up then it was on task, i.e. off chasing flowers.
We ended up at the 8,300 foot parking lot where we had a nice hike into an adjoining meadow then stopped for a shared lunch before hiking on up to the 8,800′ summit of the mountain with lots of botanical stops and visiting along the way.
Our return drive was quite spectacular, through Lockwood Valley to Hwy. 33 then down to the edge of Ojai before skirting Lake Casitas on Hwy. 150 and on into Carpinteria to drop Margaret off before heading to Santa Barbara, arriving home around 7:45 p.m.
To see a slide show of our wonderful day click on the image above.