This was our first trip to Pine Mountain, a great bouldering area about an hour’s drive north of Ojai. We all owe it to Judy who made this little gem of a discovery. The plan was to meet at the Vons in Ventura at around 11 PM. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic and it took less than 3-1/2 hours to get from San Diego to Ventura. Josh and Carol (in Carol’s Suburu), Ryan and Wish (in the Land Rover beast), and Judy, Latte, and myself met up at the Vons at around 10:30 where we stocked up on some food for the weekend ahead.

Shortly after Ventura, we broke off the 101 and headed up the 33. We soon hit Ojai and from there, it was about 31 miles to Pine Mountain Road on a fairly windy road. We then turned onto Pine Mountain Road and drove another 5 miles on a semi-paved road with sections of bumpy dirt and rocks. We hit Campsite 1 a little after midnight and were somewhat surprised that we were the only ones in the entire campsite.

Honking Alarm and Great Climbing
Early-bird Judy woke everyone up the next morning by disabling the alarm (two loud honks) on the 4-Runner. We all had breakfast and got ready to climb. After consulting Judy’s most excellent Ocean’s Eleven guidebook, we decided to head off towards Campsite 2.

There were great climbs to be found everywhere. The rock was sandstone and so didn’t quite tear up the fingertips like Black Mountain, Hueco, or J-Tree. Not only was good climbing plentiful, but there were hardly any people there, climbers or otherwise, and the weather was very nice.

By the end of the day, everyone was pretty exhausted. We wanted a good meal, but didn’t relish the thought of having to drive all the way back to Ojai for dinner. In the end, the desire for good food won out. Everyone, including the dogs, piled into my 4-Runner to head down to Ojai.

Carrow’s, No Gas, and a Long Drive
There wasn’t a great selection of restaurant choices in Ojai. We ended up going to Carrow’s where Josh graciously informed all of us that he was going straight to the bathroom to “unleash a bomb”. We wished him well in his endeavor and quickly tried to clear our minds of the thought as we sat down to order.

My 4-Runner was running low on fuel so I knew we had to fill up. We passed a 76 on the way to dinner, but decided that we could fill up after eating dinner. That turned out to be not so good an idea as the 76 station closed at 10 PM. We drove back through Ojai and passed three more gas stations that were all closed as well. Whaddup wid dat? As we were making a U-turn, Judy glimpsed a sign for a 24-hour Shell. It turned out to be in the next city down. It’s a good thing we found it or else we might have had to stay the night in Ojai.

The drive back to Pine Mountain was not very fun. It was late and we were tired so the drive seemed even longer than it really was. For future Pine Mountain trips, the lesson learned is to bring dinner!

Attack Dog, Condors, and Hang Gliders
The next day, we decided to hit the climbs around Campsite 3. We were all pretty beat from the previous day so most of us decided to take it easy. We had some non-climbing entertainment this day as the attack dog Latte charged and snapped at a boxer that was nearly 3 times its size. You gotta wonder what’s going on in that little dog’s head. We got some close-up views of some giant condors flying right above us, and we also got the chance to help some hang-gliders take off.

What?! Traffic in LA?!
Judy and I decided to head back home at around 2:30 or so. We hit some pretty bad traffic on the 405 and rather than sit through the traffic, we decided to visit Judy’s friend Ruben who lives near Venice. Together, we took a stroll to a nearby high school where Judy whipped out the scissors (from Ruben) and gave Latte a fur cut. Boulder Dog Latte had gotten pretty filthy over the weekend and a trimming was in order to get rid of the sap and junk that had accumulated on her fur. After butchering Latte, we headed to a Cuban restaurant for dinner.

On our way back to San Diego, we happened to pass Ryan who was headed to his sister’s house. We got back to SD at a reasonable 10:30 or so. All in all, it was a great trip, but the next time we go, we’re making sure to bring a hibachi! Here’s the pics.

Posted by Roger at 8:56 pm.