Finding Lost Trails: The Basics

This is the first of our Finding Lost Trails series, stay tuned for Part 2.

*Many trails were blazed (marked) with a lowercase “i” during the first half of the 20th century, and can still be found today. (Photo: Christopher San Agustin)*

Lost trails, ghost trails, historic trails—whatever you call them, these relics of the golden age of trail building are an intriguing treasure hunt for us today. Aside from the intrigue, why do we care?

Some of these lost trails are still in the official USFS trail inventory database and can be restored, providing key connections for backcountry routes like Orogenesis. Others may never have been inventoried or otherwise forgotten about, but may be easier to restore and have fewer negative environmental impacts than building an entirely new trail. In the coming months we’ll share some of the most complicated gaps along the whole route. If you live near one, we’d love your help finding any potential candidates for restoration.

The vast majority of these trails were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression to serve as transportation routes to a vast network of fire lookouts. For nine years, three million young men worked hard in the CCC to earn $30 each month—$25 of which was sent to their hungry families back home. We think we owe it to the CCC boys to not let their legacy die.

Running a Track

Soon your brain will be full of twisty, mossy paths and they all run together. On every exploration it is good practice to start a GPS recording on your phone when you begin. This not only helps you find your way back if you get lost, it also can populate a map of all your travels and show patterns of where one trail may connect to another. During your scouting hike, use the in-app camera function to take photos of the signs outlined below and other unique terrain. These photos are georeferenced in the app and will provide a visual reminder of which trail was which. You can also create map pins with notes to yourself as well. There are many apps that can do this, but the best in our opinion is Gaia GPS. Gaia also has several historic and other map layers that help locating these old trails—make sure that the layers you need are downloaded for offline use before you head out of cell service.

Wander Around

Yes, sometimes the most fun way to find lost trails can be the most rewarding too. People and animals have been creating trails for millions of years—intentionally or not—and although our modes of travel have changed, where we want trails to be today is often where others have created trails in the past. A particularly good fishing hole, vista, or simply the easiest and safest way from A to B.

Blazes

Lowercase “i” blazes and sometimes a remaining signpost, or wire insulator from old telegraphs are a sure sign this used to be a trail. These blazes were cut into the bark of trees with a hatchet at about chest height and can remain for many decades. This practice was stopped in the 1970s for the health of the trees, so you know it’s an old trail if you find one. Keep your eyes open on your next outing—it’s very likely you’ve passed by them on your last ride. Blazes can get deformed as the tree grows around them, but oftentimes were carved on both sides—check the back of the tree if you’re not sure.

*This trail wasn’t on a map, but someone still loves it enough to cut this log out*

Cut Logs

Even long after trails have fallen out of use, there can be an occasional hunter or hiker that cuts the logs or branches out of the way on old trails. They leave cut ends which are easily identifiable as a human creating an easier passage. Look for multiple cuts that define a corridor to make sure it’s a trail and not a woodcutter.

Benching

Often times even if the underbrush has grown in, the benching of the trail can be seen in more open areas or where there is a steep side slope. In rocky areas, this benching may have been done with rock work and will remain visible for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Talk to Old Timers

Talk to local old-timers, especially hikers, hunters, prospectors, and loggers—talk to the folks who know the woods better than anyone else. They’ve probably hiked or used old trails that have been long overgrown and can help you locate them and tell you whether or not it was a good trail. These folks also might have valuable old maps: maps you can’t find online. These are the mapping equivalent of finding a gold nugget, as they show all the old trails that aren’t on modern maps.

Google Earth

Google Earth has been a very useful tool for a long time, and only gets better. Google Earth Desktop is the most powerful, but the web version is the easiest. Google Earth is particularly good at finding game and hiking trails because it has better aerial resolution than most satellite views. Satellite imagery is updated every couple years and resolution is usually improved. (Most other satellite layers only give enough detail to see dirt roads.) You can trace trails and then export the lines as kmz files for importing into your preferred mapping software.

This video shows how to map and export game trails using Google Earth. The basics: click “add path” and start tracing. Whenever I lose the game trail, I use a zig-zag line until I pick up the route. When done tracing, select the path and choose “Save Place As,” you can export the line and then import it into CalTopo or Ride with GPS.

Historic Map Layers

Finding old maps has never been easier. In Gaia and CalTopo there are historic map layers you can seamlessly overlay to see where old trails and roads used to be. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and US Forest Service (USFS) have been producing maps of the entire US for over 100 years. In Gaia there are 1930, 1960, 1980, and 2016 layers—using these you can identify when the trail got dropped off the map and notice any variations in trail alignment.

In the next installment of this series we’ll dive deeper into historic maps as well as exploring heatmaps and LiDAR. Got a tip for finding lost trails? Drop us a line.