grayc27•12d agoMost Upvoted

Sawtooth reroute cost me 6 hours, check the trail closures before you leave

Headed out on the Redfish Lake loop last month and hit a washout near Alpine Creek that's not on any recent map. Google said it was a 2 mile bypass, took me 6 hours of bushwhacking and losing the path twice. Anyone know if the Forest Service actually updated their signs since then?

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caleb26212d ago

Bushwhacking for that long sounds rough, but I wouldn't trust a sign update as the fix. Forest Service trail signs are always behind, and last I checked they barely have the budget to clear fallen trees, let alone reroute a whole loop. Your 6 hours might just be the new normal until they get around to it, which could be years. You might have just caught a bad week too, sometimes the washout gets a temporary bypass that disappears after a rainstorm. Which is why I always carry a paper topo map, because GPS and Google are useless when the trail just gives up. Maybe check the local ranger station's website the morning before you go, but even that's hit or miss.