"I had a three hour window the entire weekend in which to snag a peak. I took advantage and even managed to complete an HPS summit. Mission accomplished! It's a rather easy climb that seemed to end abruptly. I found myself looking over the side on the summit to make sure I didn't have further to go. The use trail gets a little sketchy at times, but then again, it is only a use trail. Trees block a lot of the summit views, but surrounding peaks are visible through the open areas." - Peak-Conquistador, Feb 25, 2018

"It was raining and pretty foggy so that made it fun. This trail is pretty easy. You pass a couple of antennas and a concrete base of some sort. Once you reach the summit, the view is obstructed from the trees (and the fog on my particular hike)." - rickb, Jan 19, 2018

"This peak required more effort than I was expecting based on the stats of 2 mi /200 ft. The use trail involved some unpleasant side-hilling on soft forest duff and a meandering, slightly over-grown use-trail. On top of it all, views were pretty crappy from the summit due to brush. Walking around the communications site was probably the most notable feature of this trip. There wasn't a register at the top. Peak 5/6 on the day with Josephine, Lawlor, Strawberry, Barley Flats, and Deception. " - klotito, Jun 4, 2017

"Expected this to be an easy victory lap walk up. Trail from Mt Wilson side is overgrown and slippery. Miserable sidehilling for a mile or so through brush. The use trail is much further off the true ridge top and much closer to the road than I expected. Non-existent summit view. This one doesn't deserve HPS list status." - edg, Feb 6, 2016

"After a morning spent hiking near the Ventura/Kern borders with an HPS group, I wanted to get one more peak in, as I close in on my 200th HPS peak. So I headed to the San Gabriels to grab Occidental. I used HPS route 1, with a variation; the parking area described as "a large parking area, mostly barricaded by boulders" is, in fact, completely closed off by those boulders and inaccessible. I parked at the Wilson Observatory, which bumped up the mileage a bit. I didn't find any marker, cairn or register at the summit. Perhaps not many folks visit Occidental? The hike was super buggy; I was happ" - HikerMark, Sep 19, 2015