I left Mountain View around 4am and headed down 101 to the Los Padres Dam Trailhead. There was a very bright full moon this evening and I was treated to a picturesque scene while traversing the Laureles Grade road- the moonlight shining over the top of a fogbound Salinas Valley. There was one car at the parking lot when I arrived at the trailhead, and I was pleased to find the reservior valley fog free. (Visibility on my last trip was near zero.)

I donned my gear and started down the short stretch toward the Los Padres Dam. The sluiceway leading from the dam was experiencing heavy flow and I imagine that the recent rains had raised the Carmel River levels to the point that crossings would be dangerous. Luckily, my route today would head up the ridge and away from the river valley. Crossing the over the top of the dam (and picking my way around a recent rockslide that nearly blocked the trail) I was soon at the junction that marked the beginning of the Big Pines Trail.

From the trail junction, the Big Pines Trail switch backed as it climbed to the top of the Blue Rock Ridge. The sun was rising as I climbed, and the trail had a good view of the reservoir, dam, and the nearby town of Princes Camp. Once on top of the ridge, the trail followed an old firebreak/road for the length of the ridge. I was expecting the recent wet weather would have the ridgetop grasses teeming with ticks, but I only picked a single one off of me the entire day.

At the top of the initial climb, I passed the Danish Creek trail junction from which I would return 10 or so hours in the future. To the south of the ridge, far below, Danish Creek ran and one could occasionally hear the roar of cascading water. On the southern horizon sat Elephant Mtn, the Rattlesnake Creek drainage, and today's destination: Uncle Sam Mountain. To the north, the view included the Cachagua and Carmel Valley Road Valleys and, in the distance, the Monterey Bay. The Big Pines trail was very well maintained presented no route finding or downed tree issues.

Towards the end of the Big Pines trail near the headwaters of Danish Creek, the foliage shifted from chamise to towering Ponderosa Pines. Water was present in several seasonal streams along this section of trail. Soon I was at Big Pines Camp where I stopped for stopped for some breakfast took some pictures of a ladybug nesting near Danish Creek.

From Big Pines, I turned east onto the Ventana trail and began the trek towards Pat Springs. At Pat Springs camp, I seem to have made the apparently common mistake of taking an eastward leading deer path rather than the main trail. This non-trail soon petered out and I realized I was on the wrong side of the ridge. At this point, it seemed easier to just head cross country back to the main trial rather than backtrack to Pat Springs.

Uncle Sam Mountain was soon in view (and Ventana Double Cone and Kandlbinder beyond it) and I quickly reached the base of the peak. I'm still not quite sure what would have been the best place to start the bushwhack to the summit. The route I took was not the shortest, but it did allow me to follow a relatively underbrush-free dry creekbed about halfway to the top. The last 400 vertical feet involved an exhausting traversal through nearly impenetrable chaparral.

The westernmost point on the Uncle Sam summit ridge has a rocky outcropping that provides a much more impressive view than the highpoint itself, which lies near the eastern side of the ridge. The peak has one of the best views in the northern Ventana: To the north, you look down on the Blue Rock Ridge and the Monterey Bay lies on the horizon. To the east, the Ventana Triple Crown (VDC, VC, & SVC) are all nearby. To the West: Pico Blanco and the Pacific Ocean.

The traversal across the extremely dense ridgetop foliage was unpleasant and time consuming. The highpoint appears to lie amidst a dense thicket and I unable to locate anything marking the location. (An old rusted wire bolted to one of the trees was the only sign of human presence on the summit)

In what seemed like a good idea at the time, my plan was to descend the north slope of Uncle Sam and bushwhack the 1-1.5 miles over to the Rattlesnake Creek trail. This effort was complicated by the fact that I wasn't exactly sure where the Rattlesnake Trail was- the section that connects Rattlesnake Camp to Little Pines camp does not appear on any map that I'm aware of.

The northern slopes of Uncle Sam were steeper and more densely vegetated than the southern slope had been. For a good portion of the early decent I was on all fours and crawling through the chamise as I slowly descended into the Rattlesnake Creek drainage. Patches of snow were present in shady sections along the route. The chaparral soon gave way to more water-loving vegetation as reached one of the spring fed Rattlesnake Creek tributaries.

Following the creek brought its own set of issues: The creek canyon walls were steep, overgrown, and without the game trails found at higher elevations. The creek itself was flowing strongly with a swift, shin deep current making hopping across the stream difficult. I painstakingly picked my way downstream and became increasingly concerned about the dwindling amount of daylight remaining. Trail hiking after dark would be no problem, but nighttime bushwhacking through this terrain would be near impossible. Spending a long cold unpleasant night along Rattlesnake Creek was looking increasingly likely.

At some point, I gave up trying to walk along the steep banks of the creek and started sloshing through the creek bed itself. The current made this difficult, but it was still much faster than the alternatives. After awhile, even this became impossible as the creek began to cascade down a series of minor but untraversable cascades. I decided to cut over to the next valley to see if conditions were any better. Both the near and far sides of the ridge separating the creek canyons were very steep and very overgrown, but passable.

From the map, I knew that I needed to end up to the north of the creek, so I continued across the tributary in the northern valley and up the slope on the far side. Midway up the slope I was extremely pleased to find what appeared to be the Rattlesnake Creek trail. A short distance down this trail brought me to Rattlesnake Camp. I stopped briefly at the camp to eat and clean off my bruised and bleeding shins. The mile and a quarter bushwhack had taken nearly three hours.

The trail out of the camp climbed a ridge and I was treated to excellent views of the sun setting over the northern Ventana Wilderness. The trail was extremely well tagged and I had no problem following it in the increasing darkness as it decended into the Danish Creek basin. It was fully dark when I reached the small private cabin at the confluence of the Rattlesnake and Danish creeks. The trail markers disappeared at this point and the trail turned to follow Danish Creek. I had one final bit of route finding difficulties as the path crossed, Carmel River Trail style, over Danish creek 3 or 4 times before reaching Danish Camp.

At Danish Camp, the trail turned northeast and climbed steeply up to join the Big Pines trail atop the Blue Rock Ridge. From there, I retraced my steps down to the reservoir, across the dam, and back to the trailhead.