Last year, I wondered if it was possible to link up a loop hike going down what I call the Slide Trail from the junction of Charcoal and Table Mtn. roads to the Canyon Trail.
On this trip, I wanted to "close the loop" between my tracks …
Last year, I wondered if it was possible to link up a loop hike going down what I call the Slide Trail from the junction of Charcoal and Table Mtn. roads to the Canyon Trail.
On this trip, I wanted to "close the loop" between my tracks down from the top of the ridge and up the canyon from below. There was about 1/4 mile or 400m between those 2 points.
I did find some suspicious looking areas on Google satellite view that hinted at a likely brushy section down the ridge. Indeed, it was a combination of downed trees and what looked like Greasewood that made an impassible section. Luckily, the west side of the ridge was clear enough to allow me to make it past the bad section.
Farther down the ridge, I encountered a faint trail, but not deep enough to register on the LIDAR/hill shade map. That trail eventually led to some wooden construction of some sort. I found more wooden construction a bit farther down the ridge but totally missed seeing what I pointed out in an annotation. If you have any ideas on what this may have been for, drop a comment below or stay tuned for the next video where we'll find out what that is.
Was able to drop down off the ridge via the gully that I ended up at on the previous trip. Really easy to just point in the direction of that GPS track and hike downhill towards it.
It's nice to be able to put some of the knowledge gathered from my Understanding Old Trails videos to use here. Recognizing the different types of soils and how that affects the vegetation is really powerful. Also, learning to interpret the various aerial imagery maps is helpful to look for potential problem areas on the route.
USGS National Map Viewer w/ Hill Shade layers:
https://apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/
Google aerial view of the brushy area:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jp8eKeKF9gKefdpL8
More to come...
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