"From Pioneer Mail Trailhead, I found a shady place to park and crossed the highway to pick up the trail. The trail has minor elevation gain, which is unusual for a peak hike. The Pine Mountain trail wraps around the lower slopes of Pine Mountain before continuing beyond the peak. When the trail crosses a forest road, that is the time to abandon the trail and continue on the dirt road. At first, I continued on the well manicured Pine Mountain Trail before realizing that this was not going to get the job done. I quickly doubled back and followed the dirt road. I arrived at some nice pine trees that lined the road with shade on the way up to near the high point. At a point where the dirt road begins to start going downhill, I left the road and did a makeshift cross-country route toward the highest point. I wound up getting a lot of stickers in my socks from the brown grass in my short off trail trek. Eventually, I settled on a point that looked to be the highest area I could find. With that, I declared Pine Mountain to be climbed, so I found my way back to the road and retraced my steps back to the parking lot." — MikeTeeples • Jul 31, 2020

"4th peak of the day. There don't appear to be any trails that lead directly to the summit of this one. Pine Mountain trail just traverses the south side of the "mountain". A dirt road breaking off from Pine Mountain trail will get you closer, but it's ultimately a short (.25 to .5 mile) off-trail excursion to the wooded, flat "summit" of this peak. The trees were a welcome respite from the winds!" — benjineer • Jan 30, 2016

"Spent a few days exploring Laguna Mountain while I was visiting the West Coast for a wedding! Complete change of scenery compared to New England, but a great few days of hiking! Cool to do a bit of trekking on the PCT." — matt-beard • Nov 17, 2015