We hadn’t spent any time at the trailer in Pismo since the end of May, so we were looking forward to a long weekend here (made a little longer now since Chris didn’t have to be back home for Sunday afternoon music obligations). So, we planned for Friday a long loop through the northern half of Montana de Oro State Park, going up and over Hazard Peak, heading east to the park boundary, then returning north and west through Hazard Canyon – we expected to cover 12 miles or so in total, the first 4-5 being part of another similar loop we had done here back in March. Arriving at the trailhead sometime before 10am, we headed out east up the familiar Hazard Peak trail – the forecast was for afternoon sun, but the whole area was covered by low clouds with a ceiling right around 1,000′, and the temperature was quite cool. We made very good time up the well-graded trail, encountering a handful of other hikers and a couple of mountain bikers along the way, and we completed the three-mile hike to the summit of Hazard Peak in just over an hour. As we approached the top, the clouds were still hanging around, just touching the mountaintop and obscuring most of the sweeping views. We had brought our usual Subway sandwiches, and we ate our early lunch while perched on one of the summit benches constructed as Eagle Scout projects some years ago. As the clouds began to burn off, we discussed our various options for continuing the hike. Once heading east from the peak, the shortest return would total at least 8 miles while the longest loop would likely come out to 12+ – we decided to decide later, as the trail junction where we would need to turn one way or the other was more than a mile away northeast. So we headed down the eastern slope of Hazard Peak, trending north and then east again into Hazard Canyon, at one point spying three small deer below us in the brush. We had seen substantial amounts of poison oak on the way up, but here there were enormous patches that lined both sides of the trail. Although it was clipped back for most of the way, it encroached on the trail space more and more as we dropped into the canyon. We reached the junction with the Manzanita trail, one of two routes leading west down Hazard Canyon, and decided that the additional mileage eastward and back wasn’t going to be much fun if the trails were going to be so narrow. Down the Manzanita trail we went, quickly approaching a small grove of eucalyptus trees – here, the peeling bark revealed stripes of color on the tree trunks that resembled the “painted” variety we had seen on Maui. At the western edge of the grove, we unexpectedly came across a small amount of water in Hazard Creek, barely flowing but not yet stagnant – it was a pretty little place, overhung with strands of Spanish moss. Just past the creek crossing, we joined the dirt Hazard Canyon road, grateful now for a wide path where we could walk more comfortably. About a half-mile west, we found several horse camps, each with a small collection of RVs, horse trailers, and permanent corrals – reaching the lowest camp, we encountered four riders who warned us of a rattlesnake they had seen on the trail ahead of us. As they rode off east, we continued west and south along the Cable trail, a pathway covered in deep sand that was quickly annoying. We looked for but found no snake tracks, entering again a eucalyptus forest as we made our way south parallel to Pecho Road, the main road into Montana de Oro from Los Osos – the sand was very loose, and we waded through this for at least a mile before abruptly reaching the paved road. The deep sand had tired us out, so it felt good to be on terra firma as we turned left, following the asphalt pavement southward. We had a final opportunity to get back on a trail that led back up the west side of Hazard Peak to where we could have rejoined the Hazard Peak trail to follow back to our car, but it would have added perhaps a mile to the effort so we continued along the paved road the rest of the way. In total, the trip added up to 7-1/2 miles, but our legs felt like they had done far more than that with all the sand. We did the whole loop in just over three hours and averaged 3.1 mph when moving, so we felt good about maintaining that pace – another nice day on the Central Coast.