Always thought the official trail was the only way to go in the Sawtooths

I was planning a three day loop out of Stanley last fall, and the map showed a clear trail around Sawtooth Lake. A guy at the trailhead, who looked like he'd been hiking there for years, pointed to a faint line on the ground and said, 'The old fisherman's cut-off is way better, trust me.' I was sure it would be overgrown or dead-end, but we gave it a shot. It was a steep scramble for about twenty minutes, but then it opened onto this perfect granite shelf right above the lake that the main trail misses completely. We had the whole sunset spot to ourselves while the main trail crowd was a quarter mile away. Totally changed how I look at maps now. I'm curious, has anyone else found a better 'unofficial' route that beat the marked one?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah91422d ago

Wait, you got cliffed out near Lake Blanche? That's a pretty well traveled area, I'm shocked that happened. I've done that old miners path a few times myself and it's always been a clear, if steep, route to the upper basin. Makes me wonder if you took a wrong turn at that one big boulder field. Some of those social trails can split off and go nowhere good.

nancy82413d ago

Sounds like an overreaction to me. People get cliffed out all the time.

thompson.tyler22d ago

Honestly, that story makes me a bit nervous. Last summer a friend talked me into an "old miner's path" near Lake Blanche that wasn't on the map. Tbh it was a total mess, we got cliffed out and lost two hours of daylight. I get the appeal of a secret spot, but I've seen too many people get hurt or need rescue going off trail. Those main trails are built the way they are for a reason, usually for safety and to protect the land from too many random paths.