That's what I was interested in. How it is from the creekbed up to the ridge. Where did you start going up?
Can you put some markers on acme mapper? http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=34.35066,-117.72494&z=14&t=T
So you started from Vincent Gap and walked down the trail that goes down Vincent Gulch? When you get to the base of the Pine Mt. Ridge did you just go straight up from there or go to the east or west a bit? Thanks!
My son and I started from Vincent Gap and hiked down the trail into Vincent Gulch. We followed the creekbed down to where we thought Pine Mtn Ridge 'touched down'. At this point we were on the wrong side of the creek and had to find a way across. The creek was quite wide here, and we climbed over a number of logs and boulders to get to the other side. We went past (downstream) where the actual ridgeline touched down about 100 - 200 yards before climbing up to the ridge. From Vincent Gap, it looks very obvious, clear, and easy to get to the ridge. When you are actually down in the canyon, it's not quite so obvious and there are some obstacles. Our hike was in November several years ago, so some things may have changed.
OK. I just looked at the ACME map, but couldn't quite figure out how to drop a marker. From the center of the map (where the + is), continue south to where Vincent Gulch meets Mine Gulch. Turn west, then go around (south) Pine ridge. It is too steep to get to the ridge from before this point, unless you want to hike up towards cabin flats a ways first, and then you miss your goal of hiking the whole ridge. After you've gone past (south of) the ridge, as soon as you see that it's not as steep, start heading straight up through the brush. When we went, it was a bit of a fight to get on the ridge. Our goal was to hike the whole ridge. Otherwise, we would have just gone up to cabin flats and hopped on an easy trail or dirt road to the top of the ridge.