Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
last mile is overgrown and requires brushing past, at times, shoulder-high shrubs. In
winter and spring keep watch for hitchhiking ticks.
Take the right fork upslope along the Manuel Peak Trail, which soon leaves the
shade on a steady climb through fragrant coastal scrub past chamise, sage, poison
oak, coyote brush, and toyon. You'll switchback five times and climb 400 feet be-
fore catching your first glimpse of the jagged Big Sur coast and glistening Pacific,
spurring you to continue your ascent. Trail switchbacks stand out clearly against the
south-facing slopes, while the narrow river gorge below drops precipitously, seem-
ingly the result of landslides in places. The
Pine Ridge Trail
traces the cool, forested
north-facing slopes across the gorge. In summer and early fall, fog envelops the val-
ley, obscuring views.
After 2.5 miles the trail turns north and enters a canopy of live oaks, madrones,
and stately redwoods. Traversing the redwood-lined gully, the route descends into
a smaller but more significant
gully
(3.4 miles, 1720'), home to a small seasonal
creek—though in dry months (April through October), this is little more than a muddy
seep.
From this minor gully, you'll climb east and enter the
Ventana Wilderness.
After
0.3 mile (3.7 miles, 2200'), turn north for your first views toward the scraggly bald
peaks of
Ventana Double Cone
(4853') and neighboring summits. The trail is not reg-
ularly maintained from here to the summit, though it's still easy to identify through the
overgrown brush. You'll have to scramble across a few downed trees and dry washes.
Continue your ascent through dense, sometimes shoulder-high thickets of coastal
chaparral (4 miles, 2200'). Dominating the trailside is wartleaf, which bears pungent
sawtooth leaves. After 0.4 mile passage through this moderate overgrowth, the trail
opens and climbs west across a north-facing ridge studded with oaks and madrones.
You'll soon crest the ridge with views of the Pacific (or perhaps fogbanks in summer)
to the west and the rugged
Santa Lucia Range
to the east.
MANUEL INNOCENTI
Manuel Peak is named for Manuel Innocenti, an Esselen Indian from Big Sur who
was raised and educated at the Santa Barbara Mission in Southern California. In 1868
he returned to this area, purchasing land and a cabin near Manuel Peak for $50.
Tragically, though the land and the sea had provided Manuel's tribe with an
abundance of all they needed to survive—deer, rabbits, fish, shellfish, wild flax, tule
reeds, berries, acorns, bulbs, quail—his people had vanished. From 1770, when Fath-
er Junipero Serra and Captain Gaspar de Portola founded a mission and presidio at
Monterey, the “pagan souls” of the coast had been brought into the mission system.
Most either assimilated, succumbed to disease, or were killed in warfare.
