Richardson Lake Trail re-route!

Yesterday, I received an email from a forest service employee boasting some great trail work on the Richardson Lake Trail up to Sourdough Hill. The only pictures he included were those of trails demolished and covered in trees and brush. I was horrified!

The series of pictures looked like this…

The next morning, I was up at 5:15am and out by 6:15am to get to the trail to see what the Forest Service had done to one of my trails.

Although the Forest Service had blocked off the last climb to the summit of Sourdough Hill, they had put in a switch back and more than a quarter mile of new trail.

For those of you who’ve never been there, here is a photo of the old route. This does not give you the idea of how steep this trail was originally. The ruts show previous wheel spinning and rain runoff causing erosion.

The old trail can be seen on the right side of the next picture, the new route goes from left to right in front of my Jeep. This reroute was warranted as the old route was a steep, loose, rocky, rutted trail that was causing erosion and was not safe as shown in the previous picture.

A better look up the trail after the switchback…

Here is another look up the blocked off ‘hill climb’…

Up from the switchback…

Back in to the trees. Note the trees cut down in order to create this new trail.

Nearing the summit. Those familiar with the trail should know the radio hut is to your left in this picture. You used to come up to the summit with the hut on your right.

The parking area is the same as before you just approach it from the bottom not the top.

Here is a shot of where the trail used to come up. (The radio hut to my left.)

Poser shot at the summit! A selfie if you count the shadow.

Views on the way down.

Hats off to the Forest Service for the reroute but I need to talk to my contact about communicating the entire story with more pictures.

Rubicon Ronin