"shortcuts" on Skyline

[kevin trieu]

I hiked the Skyline trail with Tina a couple weeks back and was a bit disappointed to see the numerous "shortcuts" on the trail. With the increased popularity of the trail and people wanting to shave off minutes off their time, the results were a bunch of "shortcuts" added to the main trail. I’m guessing these shortcuts were created to shorten the length of the trail and decrease the time it takes to get to the top. If you don’t want to hike that many miles, take a shorter trail? If you want to cut down the time, get stronger?

I understand it is very tempting to try and keep up with your buddy and be able to brag through this site or otherwise because you got up in 5:50 instead of 5:55 but you must fight the temptation. I'm also guilty of taking a couple of shortcuts and felt bad after because in my mind I knew I was contributing to the destruction of the landscape and I was doing it out of pure laziness. I wasn't racing; I wasn't keeping time, why am I doing this?

There are many reasons not to cut switchbacks and create new paths but I'll just bring out one that's most important to me: It is really ugly. To me the aesthetic of a trail is more important than how fast I can get through it.

This is not coming from a Sierra Club geezer but a dude that saw something lost in the way people enjoy the wilderness.

Thanks for reading my rant.

[EMan]

Kudos, Kevin!

[halhiker]

The shortcuts on Skyline are nothing new; most have been there over twenty years. I don't like them and a lot of them have caused trail erosion, especialy on the lower section. They've become even more pronounced with the popularity of the hike. It's frustrating.

Of course, being it's not an official trail but rather a route it's to be expected. There are many similar routes in the Sierra where there's not one established trail but many routes.

I got weary of the crowds, the rescues and the other assorted hassles a few years ago and haven't hiked it in a while. Every fall and spring I get the itch but always find better things to do. Thankfully, the crowds haven't followed so there's still plenty of wilderness out there. You just have to find it.

[AlanK]

I have to agree. Most of the shortcuts on Skyline are nothing like shortcuts on the Whitney trail, which are on granite. The paths in the desert environment of Skyline are delicate.

I could understand a few years ago when I saw some obvious trail veteran taking a shortcut. Hardly anyone made the hike and newcomers (I among them) tended to follow the beaten path. Now more and more people are obviously using the shortcuts and the situation is deteriorating. I don't see the justification for using shortcuts in this case.

[zippetydude]

Hi Kevin. If it's any consolation, I believe the general use of the trail will strongly favor one route after a while, and the other paths will disappear, becoming overgrown in a couple of seasons. It looks worse now because the trail has suddenly become more popular and lots of new eyes and feet are yielding some new routes. But, after this period of adjustment, the trails will very likely dwindle back to a single primary trail (or perhaps a couple, as halhiker mentioned that some of the shortcuts are pretty old).

(By the way, that wasn't my own original idea. Walt and I were talking about this topic a couple of years ago and he proposed this theory, which struck me as reasonable and most likely correct. In fact, if you look around as you go along the trail, you'll occasionally see old, overgrown routes that have already begun the process of natural revegetation. Sort of reminds me of oxbow lakes left behind by a meandering river that has, itself, moved on to a more efficient route.

Perhaps we are all but water molecules in this great river we call life. But I wax poetic...)

Of course, this doesn't happen on maintained trails because you have competing forces - the natural tendency to take the shortest route vs. the forest service (or some agency) working to maintain a well-documented route that is functional for everyone. Thus, I don't cut switchbacks on established trails. I will explore and find cross-country routes, but that will be completely removed from trails altogether.

Anyway, thanks for an interesting post.

z

[hvydrt]

It is really ugly. To me the aesthetic of a trail is more important than how fast I can get through it.

Agreed. I think someone decorating "their Christmas tree" falls into this category as well.

[SDathlete]

Just for the record...this Saturday on my Sprint to the Summit, I did not cut switchbacks. The lower section (below about 2500' or so) of the Skyline trail it's almost impossible to follow the "original" trail as there are so many cuts on the trail. You see a lot less of it once you get above the Manzanita.

[Florian]

I thought i was the only person that was bothered by the shortcuts. I enjoy the historical nature of the trail and always try to hike the original route. It was a very well designed trail to have lasted 60 or 70 years without official maintenance. I know many of you are only interested in your PR times but i'd appreciate your considering the health and stability of the trail itself.

°Florian

[Zé]

lower section seems the worst to me.

just curious, I wonder what people did "back in the day" when they just followed a route up a hill or mountain, but nothing was maintained. did they all follow the same route? if not, was the multiple routes affecting their enjoyment of the wilderness?

for me when dealing with use trails, in general I find it hard to complain about multiple use trails b/c no one trail is the "right" one. Am I going to tell the animals to stop making game trails b/c they are not aesthetic?

However with maintained trails it's another thing. 1) people put hard work into the trails and 2) lots of people use it, so it would just be confusing with multiple routes

Skyline isn't maintained, but it does fit both those points. Seems like a good idea for a single route but again it's not maintained and if a trail is "inefficient" there was always be a "black market" for making a new one.

[AlanK]

When I first did Skyline (in 2002 -- I am not an old timer on that route by any means), there was, for the most part, a single, obvious trail from Ramon Rd. to Long Valley. OK, the "trail" was a little vague in the last stretch, something that is not true any more. I could understand people who new the mountain well taking shortcuts because there was little sign of those shortcuts.

Today? At the rate things are going, the entire mountain will be covered with footpaths. It is already reducing the appeal of some of the route for me.