[Cdt-l] Reading Trail guides Backwards!!! UG!

[Sly]

Trew,

After a while you should develop a feel for the trail and a knack for 
reading the guides.  You'll need to jump back and forth and do the 
opposite, but eventually you'll get a feel for it. I don't have the 
guides in front of me but for instance let's say it goes like this, 
"turn right on FS 239. Ascending continue for three miles on the feint 
rolling road. Pass a burnt out ruin on the left before turning left onto 
county road 36and continue south for 1.8 miles."

You're hiking north on county road 36, you need to be aware of a road 
coming up on the right. Once you pass a burnt out ruin on your right, 
you'll need descend 3 miles on a feint rolling FS 239 for three miles 
until you hit a junction on your left.

You can also use the elevations in the guide for navigation with an 
altimeter.  There were  several times I was looking for a turn in the 
trail at a certain elevation and it was dead on.  Another when we were 
ascending and should have been descending. I got out the guide and saw 
where we missed a turn a mile back. From there we used a compass and GPS 
to go cross country to intersect the trail.

Of note, the Wolf guides certainly come in handy in the area around 
Ghost ranch, which, if I'm not mistaken is theWolf route on the Ley 
maps.  (credit where credit is due)

While you can certainly hike the trail without them, most of the time, I 
went to the guides first (also using my altimeter and dead reckoning), 
then the maps, and finally a GPS if I couldn't figure out where I was.

Sly



On 1/26/2013 2:14 AM, Scott Williams wrote:
> It was a bit of a challenge, but it does get easier over the summer. 
>  At the start, even the maps were confusing.  As for trail 
> descriptions, I'd read them in general and then just go with the maps. 
>  There's quite a bit of info on both Ley's maps and Jerry Brown's.
>
> Shroomer
>
> On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 9:55 PM, Doug Carlson 
> <doug-sue at centurylink.net <mailto:doug-sue at centurylink.net>> wrote:
>
>     Am I the only one mentally challenged with converting sobo trail
>     guidebks into useful nobo tail information?
>
>     The maps are helpful, but the trail descriptions are the challenge.
>
>     -Trew
>
>
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