After feeling a little beaten up after last week’s hike up Gaviota Peak, and looking forward to several hikes we’re planning for our upcoming vacation on Maui, we decided to try and get in a 5+mile hike in once a week. In looking for something close by, we opted for a walk up Mill Creek, a year-round stream that runs north down Breckenridge Mountain into the Kern River Canyon a couple of miles east of Democrat Hot Springs – the trailhead is not much more than an hour from the house, and it would be our first hike in the Sierras since Sherman Peak in 2010. The trail crosses Mill Creek four times before leaving the drainage for another to the east, then climbing steeply up a ridgeline west of Lightner Peak to Breckenridge Road some 7-1/2 miles distant. We figured we’d walk south up the trail to a point about 3 miles or so from the trailhead, have a bite to eat, and head back down – about 2-1/2 miles in, the trail reaches a saddle not far south of a summit marked Peak 3,295 on the topo, so we figured we might at least say we climbed something on the way. As advertised, the trail was well-marked and easy to find, and we set out just before 10am. We immediately began climbing gently away to the southwest, rounding a shoulder of the ridge to enter Mill Creek canyon proper. At an altitude of about 2,400′ at this point, the trail wound its way southward along the canyon’s east side, contouring easily without much perceptible change in elevation. About a mile in, we reached Mill Creek for the first crossing, which was flowing nicely despite being pretty early in the season, and we ascended our first hill of any size after crossing to the creek’s west bank. After a short break, we resumed our march, crossing the creek three more times before climbing numerous but managable switchbacks to the saddle – here, the trail drops downhill to the east along an adjacent creek (Chris refers to it as Lightner Creek, although the name is uncertain). The terrain to the north is open brush, so we decided it would be easy enough to explore the ridgeline out to the summit of Peak 3,295. Five minutes’ walk uphill brought us to some large boulders at the top, one of which looked to be the obvious high point. Since the view was a little obstructed by the trees scattered around the hilltop area, Chris thought the summit block was worth a short scramble – Jane snapped some rather unflattering pictures as he scaled the near-vertical wall to reach the vaunted high point – actually, it was nowhere near that dramatic, but it was fun and yielded the expected views. We returned to the trail and followed it further southeast to some meadows along Lightner Creek before turning around at mile 3.00 on the GPS. The trip down was uneventful, although we did encounter a number of parties heading in as we were heading out, after seeing virtually no one on the trail previously despite a handful of cars at the trailhead when we had arrived. At one point, we noticed an eagle flying high above us to the north, and Jane got a couple of good pictures before he dove off over the ridgeline to the west. We were back to the car by about 12:15, and our average moving speed was 3.0 mph, a mark we felt very good about. We may well come back here in coming weeks to explore further up the trail and increase our distance and stamina.