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Update: the 'shortcut' trail at Red River Gorge added 4 miles and a cow
Hit the Auxier Ridge loop near Slade, Kentucky over the weekend and saw a hand drawn sign at the junction that said 'shortcut 0.5 mi.' I figured sure, why not, and followed six other hikers down it like a parade of fools. Forty minutes later we popped out on a gravel road with no blazes, no map marker, and a very confused cow staring at us from a fence line. Ended up walking 4 extra miles on pavement back to the lot, and a guy named Dale in a pickup pointed us the right way after laughing at our shoes. The 'shortcut' is real on some old map from the 70s, but it got rerouted and nobody pulled the sign. Anyone know if that junction is still marked like that this season, or did a ranger finally yank it?
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sandraflores6d ago
Man, come on, that sign did you a favor. Four extra miles on gravel and a chat with Dale beats the actual worst case out there, which is following a fake trail into a ravine in the dark because you trusted a piece of cardboard. Plenty of folks at the Gorge have done way worse with way less, so a little pavement and a bored cow is a small toll. If a ranger yanks that sign, somebody else just wanders off the ridge looking for it and finds a cliff instead.
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