EISPIRATEN

by ridge route. Has this been done?

Don't know for sure but looks doable. No trail for the most part except in the middle portion of the ridge where the dirt road is marked. Might be some "use trail," but no "official" trail. Sounds like an interesting route, and with over 5000' of gain it should be "fun."

ask Rick Kent

yes, ive done the route from vincent gap to pine mountain. The hike is a long slog but not as hard as you would think. Just make sure to take the turn from gulch onto the right ridge. Its hard to see where exactly to go from down below.

Lots of bighorn on route. Ridge is straigthforward. Shuttle or other car at wrightwood necessary.

5500' gain from the gulch. about an 8 mile hike to pine from vincent gulch.

I suppose if you went down to the Lupine Camp area and then hiked down Prarie Fork instead of from Vincent Gap, you could make it a shuttleless loop.

I looks tough from the topo to get up onto the ridge from the river. The topo lines get quite close together beside the river. Was there a particular route that you took to get up onto the ridge?

HJ

yes, the vincent gulch trail, you reach east fork 5 miles from vincent gap.

Then you climb onto the ridge over steep ground, and hike a use trail to the top of pine mountain. Several firebreaks were encountered.

Then you take the north backbone trail down to wrightwood. and have a shuttle there.

One could also place a car on the Blue Ridge Road instead of Wrightwood, which would cut off a couple of miles of hiking.