EISPIRATEN

Spotted a bit of trail while google mapsing on a ridge on the south side of Santiago peak between falls canyon and holy Jim canyon. Never heard anything about this but I checked it out and it's gotten a fair amount of use. Mostly just a bushwhack, but some parts have good little bits of trail. Went up a couple thousand ft to where two main ridges meet and turned around. Probably not even halfway. Got a good view of the peak and couldn't make out any trail between me and the top, if anyone's got any info on this that would be sweet. The ridge starts right before the main parking lot for holy Jim between the bridge and the fire station.



There's some blue tape tied to a tree at the bottom




Weird pile of sticks








Bushes up there look especially shitty

The weird pile of sticks in your photo looks like a woodrat den. These are commonly found in California chaparral and oak woodlands.

The ridge you were climbing looks like it has remnants of a firebreak up to where you went, then looks really overgrown with a couple of other firebreak remnants near the top (based on google earth photos from 2016). It looks like a very rough ride.

There is a pretty good firebreak on the SSW ridge, sometimes called Powerline Ridge because of the towers running up it. It can be accessed cleanly from the Joplin Trail. Here is a report on it (not mine):

http://mountaineeringreview.blogspot.co ... ridge.html

The sticks are definitely a wood rat nest. I've seen them in the Santa Anas in very remote places. The one rat I've seen was about rabbit sized.

thanks for the info guys