By carefully studying the maps, I found a route from Hwy 33 that avoids the private property in Brubaker canyon. The route first crosses the (dry) Cuyama River, ascends a drainage between two cliffs, then skirts the ranch by following the fence line up and down an annoying number of side canyons. Once in Brubaker canyon proper, there's the remnants of the old road for most of length. At the head of the canyon the road improves and switches back uphill to meet the Tinta trail.

There was no water in the lower part of Tinta creek. From Upper Tinta campground, the climb starts steep up to the ridge and then undulates for a surprisingly long time before reaching the rocky outcrop that is the Lizard Head summit. I enjoyed seeing many peaks I had already climbed and many more that I want to.

I retraced my steps and then continued up canyon. There was a small amount of water in the creek within half a mile of the upper trailhead. The well graded road was a welcome change after the use trails and cross county. I did not linger on the Cuyama summit since I needed to descend the cross country south east ridge and was losing daylight.

Sunset caught me about half way down the ridge. There's an occasional duck, but for the most part the ridge is a cross county route. It was generally best to stay on the true ridge proper. The few times it got too rocky, descending off the west was better than the east. By this point it was fully dark and the walk out Brubaker canyon felt twice as long as the way in.

I finally made it back to the car nearly 13 hours after I started. Los Padres has a way of humbling me every time I visit.