Thanks guys. It's a beautiful area, well worth visiting. Perhaps my favorite in Southern Cal. It's also well watered, which makes for lighter weight travel.
As for a stove, I have a couple of stoves that I consider my "workhorse" stoves, stoves that I turn to on a regular basis for just "ordinary" trips where there aren't any special considerations: my old Svea 123 and my MSR Whisperlite. This trip was a Whisperlite trip. Didn't photo the stove since it was just a lowly Whisperlite, but let me tell you that hot oatmeal and hot cocoa sure hit the spot on that chilly morning!
The spot I pulled off Hwy 38 was past where the highway crosses the Santa Ana River but just before where Fish Creek comes in. It's pretty tricky to spot. An easier to spot location to do "dispersed" camping is in the East Flats area off of Jenks Lake Road East.
HJ