Tried that shortcut trail near Lake Tahoe and it was a total bushwhack nightmare

I took what the map called a '3 mile shortcut' off the PCT near Desolation Wilderness last Saturday and it turned into 5 hours of pushing through manzanita and losing the trail twice. The map was from 2018 and clearly nobody maintained that route since then. Has anyone else had an older guidebook totally screw you over like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.charlie11d ago

Blame the map if you want but 5 hours for a 3 mile shortcut sounds more like a navigation issue than a map issue. 2018 isn't even that old for a trail map, things don't change that much in 5 years unless there was a fire or something. Manzanita is annoying but it's not like you were lost in a blizzard or something. You probably just missed a turn and turned a 45 minute walk into a 5 hour bushwhack, that's on you man.

seth_martinez218d ago

Did they mention what map they were using exactly? There's a big difference between a USGS quad, a forest service map, and some cheap gas station foldout. If it was an app on their phone and they lost signal, that's a different problem too. Just curious if the map actually had the shortcut marked or if they were trying to connect dots that weren't there.