Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cool crystalline waters offer a respite from the brush-choked, sun-drenched slopes leading
into the Big Sur River basin.
After half a mile past head-high brush and scattered black oaks, madrones, and
ponderosa pines, you'll round a minor ridge and reach the
Divide Camp Trail junc-
tion
(4.1 miles, 3800'). The spur leads 200 feet to the first of two sites in the shade
of large pines, oaks, and alders. Each can accommodate up to two tents. A hundred
feet west of camp is a small spring that dwindles to a muddy seep by midsummer and
early fall.
Past the spur junction, the Pine Ridge Trail climbs above camp, meanders south-
west past two small seeps, and leads 100 feet farther to a larger spring-fed creeklet
lined with enormous chain ferns. A large fallen oak blocks the trail, requiring careful
footing, especially if you're carrying a heavy pack. Past the creeklet, trail conditions
worsen, and you must forge through overhead thickets of ceanothus. Fortunately,
there's very little poison oak, and the trail is well graded. In spots the brush clears,
offering glimpses of Ventana's high peaks. Flat-topped Uncle Sam Mountain lies 6
miles northwest, rising above the Puerto Suelo saddle. A long ridge leads left from
the saddle up to Ventana Double Cone.
Ascending toward Pine Ridge, you'll cross a small spring-fed creek (4.7 miles,
4000'), the most reliable water source in the 3.6 miles between Divide Camp and
Pine
Ridge Camp.
The route contours past an unnamed 4751-foot peak to the south, then
reaches the
Pine Valley-Pine Ridge Trail junction
(5.8 miles, 4230'). Westbound
hikers who spend the night in Pine Valley rejoin the Pine Ridge Trail here (see
side
trip
for details).
Past the junction, the trail becomes increasingly overgrown with bay laurel, cean-
othus, manzanita, and scrub oak, species that are thriving in the wake of numer-
ous fires, particularly the 1999 Kirk Complex Fires. Press on through the encroach-
ing brush to ascend a minor saddle (6.5 miles, 4410'). Pause here for views south-
east along
Tassajara Creek
canyon to the highest point in the
Santa Lucia Range,
5862-foot
Junipero Serra Peak.
FIRE AS A SHAPING FORCE
Over just two days in fall 1999, the Ventana Wilderness was hit by some 1200 light-
ning strikes as a subtropical system from the Gulf of California unexpectedly formed
into a massive electrical storm over the Santa Lucia Range. This awe-inspiring dis-
play ignited the Kirk Complex Fires, a series of 47 wildfires that swept across more
than 90,000 acres of the wilderness over three months, sparing only the most protec-
ted canyons and barren ridges.
The region is no stranger to fire. Every acre of the wilderness has been scorched
at least twice this century. As a result, many plants are well adapted to fire. Since
