SoCal TweetUp: Los Pinos Summit and Camping at Blue Jay Campground

Over the weekend Zac and I got the opportunity to connect with like-minded bloggers and enjoy a day of hiking and a night of camping. The websites for the bloggers we hung out with are as follows and the area was off Highway 74 in the Cleveland National Forest.

• EastWestHike
• ShoeStringAdventures
• CaliforniaThroughMyLens
• CampfireChic
• SoCalHiker
• RockGrrl

Los Pinos

First off was a hike to the summit of Los Pinos, a 5 mile and 1,000 feet of elevation climb that was relatively boring at first, since it was just along a dirt road. As soon as it got over the ridge and started to climb though it became pretty amazing as the views were massive and beautiful.

The road eventually ends at the trailhead for the actual hike (you could drive here but it would require a 4 wheel drive car). From here it is about a mile to the summit and it climbs and drops over ridges.

After the last drop, you will be on a slight incline up to the small rocky summit that makes up Los Pinos. Here is where we met our summit partner. When one of the group members opened the summit register to sign it they stumbled on the gem of Los Pinos, the Sexy Bikini Panda. This small rubber band creature came with both a name tag and a hashtag to use with photos. It was a fun find on the summit that we all got a kick out of. Here is a picture of the group on the summit.

After that we headed back down the hill and hit a second peak that Pete from EastWestHike has now deemed “Second Peak.”

A very descriptive name that I think really sums up the style of the mountain. The views of the lake were epic from up here.

Blue Jay Campground

Next stop was the group campground that we had picked up for the trip. I have to say, CampfireChic really did well booking this spot it was epic. There was a ton of space for tents, a bathroom just for our group campground, 5 tables to sit at and a massive fire ring. All of this making for a massive win in the campsite department.

There was also some awesome swag waiting for us to review such as really nice socks from Keen, Fabletics, Gerber seat belt cutters from and hand lotion for climbers. I tried out the socks and really liked them, review here and I can’t wait to use the rest of the stuff.

The dinner for the night was a potluck and after which the fire side conversation which consisted of trading adventure stories. RockGrrls trip up Mt Whitney was a highlight as well as hearing about Jeff and Joan’s Catalina trail, which I can’t wait to do.

I also decided to try my hand at some night photography and this is what I came up with.

The next morning we stopped by Kristi’s Korner for a wide range of jerky before hitting up the awesome Lookout Roadhouse which I cannot recommend more.

All in all it was a great weekend with people I met online that are becoming real, actual friends! Can’t wait till the next one!

Photo Gallery