Once again, planned a route on Google Earth and downloaded it to my GPS, and once again, it was so far off from what was on the ground we ended up going WAY in the wrong direction. For starters, the map has the trails on it, but evidently doesn't bother to include the forest service roads, so when we headed out through the gate on the north end of the campground area, we headed along what we thought was Trooper Trail, but we found out later was an unmapped service road (even though it was obviously the main dirt road through the park). My GPS indicated we should be traveling the same path, only about a quarter mile south. We made several attempts to go south to try to pick it up, only to be stopped by the creek (which we crossed more times than I bothered to count) and a row of bluffs that were impossible to climb. We learned later that in order to find the trailhead of Trooper Trail, we needed to turn south IMMEDIATELY after going through the gate, but there were no visible signs there, of either a trail or of signs pointing to a trail, so we totally missed it. After several false starts, we finally just kept going on the dirt road (after all, the point was to ride, not which trail we rode on, right?) but eventually we passed the west intersection of Boots and Saddles, one of the two main trails here. We turned south on that, thinking it might take us to Trooper Trail, but the trail seemed to peter out, and when we came to a gate, we abandoned it and went back to the main road. We continued west, hoping to run into the original trail I had planned on, but then we came to another gate, and didn't feel very confident about carrying on any further. Naturally, the road was boring, so we decided to return to the intersection of Boots and Saddles and take the north loop of that back to camp, as that had been an alternative to begin with. We started climbing, and the trail did get a lot more interesting, and was well marked with posts all along the way, weaving around the edges of some serious bluffs, lots of down and dead trees leftover from the fire in '89, a bit treacherous in a few spots, and longer than we had hoped, but we took a break in a place with spectacular views, of which there were many others, and treated the horses with a couple of apples, taking a nice rest there. Eventually we made it back down to camp, though Hubby's back was starting to give him trouble on the way down. It seems it's steep declines that give him the most trouble. We got settled in as quickly as we could, had dinner, invited the ladies next door in for another Bond movie, and had another quiet evening.
Once again, planned a route on Google Earth and downloaded it to my GPS, and once again, it was so far off from what was on the ground we ended up going WAY in the wrong direction. For starters, the map has the trails on it, but evidently doesn't bother to include the forest service roads, so when we headed out through the gate on the north end of the campground area, we headed along what we thought was Trooper Trail, but we found out later was an unmapped service road (even though it was obviously the main dirt road through the park). My GPS indicated we should be traveling the same path, only about a quarter mile south. We made several attempts to go south to try to pick it up, only to be stopped by the creek (which we crossed more times than I bothered to count) and a row of bluffs that were impossible to climb. We learned later that in order to find the trailhead of Trooper Trail, we needed to turn south IMMEDIATELY after going through the gate, but there were no visible signs there, of either a trail or of signs pointing to a trail, so we totally missed it. After several false starts, we finally just kept going on the dirt road (after all, the point was to ride, not which trail we rode on, right?) but eventually we passed the west intersection of Boots and Saddles, one of the two main trails here. We turned south on that, thinking it might take us to Trooper Trail, but the trail seemed to peter out, and when we came to a gate, we abandoned it and went back to the main road. We continued west, hoping to run into the original trail I had planned on, but then we came to another gate, and didn't feel very confident about carrying on any further. Naturally, the road was boring, so we decided to return to the intersection of Boots and Saddles and take the north loop of that back to camp, as that had been an alternative to begin with. We started climbing, and the trail did get a lot more interesting, and was well marked with posts all along the way, weaving around the edges of some serious bluffs, lots of down and dead trees leftover from the fire in '89, a bit treacherous in a few spots, and longer than we had hoped, but we took a break in a place with spectacular views, of which there were many others, and treated the horses with a couple of apples, taking a nice rest there. Eventually we made it back down to camp, though Hubby's back was starting to give him trouble on the way down. It seems it's steep declines that give him the most trouble. We got settled in as quickly as we could, had dinner, invited the ladies next door in for another Bond movie, and had another quiet evening.
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