About 50' from the very popular Kelcema Lake trail is the trailhead for Deer Creek Pass, a .6 mile, 300' elevation gain stroll to a ridge with views of Three Fingers, Liberty and Big Bear mountains. It's easy to overlook. We went past it at first, thinking the trail was a small eroded watercourse. Turns out it's both.
The small bridges and puncheons look like they were installed around 1960, and I'd guess that's the last time anybody other than the occasional trail user thought to maintain it, so it's safer to avoid the crumbling bridges and slick, slimey puncheons than to use them. Be sure your boots are laced up tight too, because there are some deep, boot sucking mudholes that are hard to avoid on the first half of the trail.
(Note to any interested parties: it wouldn't take much to rehabilitate this trail, which would help relieve some of the pressure from the somewhat overused Kelcema trail. This would make a great Eagle Scout project, or a nice opportunity for WTA volunteers who aren't athletic enough to tackle a backcountry work party).
The second half of the trail is wider, less brushy and with only a few small blowdowns as it switchbacks quickly to the ridge. Just before reaching the top I saw flagging tape and a sign for the "Helena Mine Trail", an informal trail marked off by someone (the ranger said a Boeing engineer) with a sense of adventure & history, but I didn't have time to explore it as grandpa duty called this afternoon.
For the curious and intrepid, there is also the Saint Louis Mine along Deer Creek just 100 yards or so downhill from the parking area, and the Bonanza Queen Mine about 2 miles up Deer Creek Road from the Mountain Loop Highway. Look for a wide spot on the left with a "what the duece?" brass plaque on a rock among the bushes and follow a faint trail a few hundred feet to the mine.
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