The old ranger's shortcut that added 4 extra miles

Back in 2018 I was doing the Kings Canyon section and a retired ranger told me to skip the switchbacks and cut across the creek bed near mile 12. I trusted him because he'd worked that trail for 26 years. That path was washed out bad, and I ended up backtracking all the way to the junction. Anyone else ever take local shortcut advice and regret it more than just sticking to the map?

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ellis.robert1mo ago

Something kind of like that happened to me in Shenandoah a few years back. A guy at a shelter swore there was a swimming hole just a quarter mile off trail, so a buddy and I dropped our packs and went looking. Two hours of bushwhacking later we found a muddy puddle with a dead deer in it. We never did find the trail again the easy way and had to bushwhack back to the AT by compass. The weird part is the guy seemed so sure, like he'd been there a hundred times, so maybe it was a real spot once and just dried up. Anyway the lesson I took was that trail beta from strangers has a shelf life, creeks move and blowdowns change everything. A ranger with 26 years out there knows the old route, not the one that exists after a few big winters.

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