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Tried a 12 mile shortcut through East Fork instead of the main loop and hit a washed out trail
Honestly I got cocky last month and skipped the main loop at East Fork for a shortcut I saw on an old map. About 4 miles in the trail just vanished into a creek bed, and I spent 40 minutes bushwhacking through rhododendron before I found the blazes again. My knees were toast and I drank way more water than I packed for, so I learned to trust the maintained route over some line on paper. Has anyone else run into trails that are still on maps but basically gone in real life? How do you spot a dead route before you commit to it?
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riley_coleman21d ago
The "bushwhacking through rhododendron" part got me because that stuff is basically nature's barbed wire and I have done the exact same thing, convinced I was only ten feet from the trail the whole time. My worst was an old forest service road that showed up on my map but in real life was a quarter mile of downed trees and blackberry vines, and I kept telling myself it had to open up around the next bend. It never did. Now I check recent trip reports and satellite views before I trust any old line, and if the last report is more than a couple years old I just take the main route. A shortcut that costs you 40 minutes and half your water is not a shortcut, it is a lesson.
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