This is the ridge between Arroyo Seco and Little Bear Canyon. I didn't capture a good gps trace (only a spotty one), but the route is simple. This is the ridge:
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.2592 ... =t&o=t&n=1
I parked at Switzer's, walked the Gabrielino to (almost) the waterfall, and picked up the ridge at the metal grills in that area. This initial part is very brushy, and there're a lot of poor animal tracks. Eventually I got to the flat saddle from before, and saw the same view as last week:
For a while after this point there's an intermittent animal trail, or maybe a very old human trail. Lots of brush. Terrain is manageable. The next bump looks more technical, but it's not, really
From the bump at ~ 4500ft, the ridge looks like this. Point 4711 is ahead. The brush past it looks alarming.
Here I found a trail to the North side of the ridge, and there was a whole network of pretty good trails. I followed the main one back, and it looked like it drops down into the Arroyo Seco. No idea if it remains a useable trail below the ridge. Further ahead on the trail was what I initially thought was a birthday balloon; instead it was this:
It was a pain to get here my way. If there's some sort of shortcut from the Arroyo, maybe that's what's going on? After this artist practiced on the small rock next to the beer bottles, they were ready for bigger things
There was a fire ring on the ridge at this point. I don't know. Before 4711, the trail devolves to the intermittent animal track I was accustomed to. From 4711, the upcoming brush is still alarming.
Once I got to it, it wasn't great, but wasn't terrible either. Mostly it's manzanita (i.e. no thorns), and there's a clear-ish drainage in the middle that works well as a trail. Past most of the manzanita:
Above that, the final climb to the main ridge comes into view
I was initially aiming for the area on the right, since it looked less steep. But the line I was following through the brush mostly followed the ridge, and I ended up at the rocky wall on the right instead. This was maybe 3rd class, but really wasn't bad. Lots of holds. I took my time, and it yielded. It's less steep above, and there're LOTS of deer tracks:
I gained the ridge, and backtracked a bit to look at Supercloud Hollow:
Weird. And I found this:
The ridge top has a GOOD trail. I walked up to Mt. Deception (it isn't very peaky), and got a good look at Mt. Disappointment straight ahead:
I then followed the trail to the road to the trail to the road, and ended up on top of Mt. Disappointment, looking back at Deception:
Looks like it's actually somewhat prominent. And you can see a bit of my ridge poking out above Disappointment's right shoulder. Then after what felt like a never-ending trail walk, I was back at Switzer's.
