I hiked with my brother. We lost the trail in a few places, and also left it deliberately a few times as well. It's probably better to stick with the trail the whole way, even though it adds more distance and elevation gain. We did come across what looked to be some kind of campsite when we were off trail, just north of the ridge. There was a large trash bag filled with something, a backpack, and some other trash around there. This was on a more level section of the ridge, before the final saddle on the way up.