My recent struggle with an unmarked trail junction made me realize the gaps in our community's knowledge sharing.

I took a wrong turn at a poorly signed intersection and added two extra miles to my hike, highlighting the need for better on-trail signage.

4 comments

4 Comments

mia_ross3mo agoMost Upvoted

The fork at mile 7 on the Red Rock Canyon loop confused me too. I ended up on a service road for an hour. Now I always screenshot the trail map on my phone before starting. Even with no signal, the image loads. I drop pins at tricky junctions for my return trip. Shared those tips on our local hiking forum last month.

lucasw573mo ago

Oh man, that service road detour sounds frustrating. I've definitely been there (my GPS once led me onto a fire road that just... ended). Screenshotting the map is a lifesaver, especially since cell service is so spotty in canyons. Dropping pins at junctions is brilliant, and it's something I started doing after a similar mishap. It's why I'm all for geotagging confusing spots, like reed.dylan mentioned. Turning those individual mistakes into shared knowledge really does make the trails safer for everyone.

dylan_owens3mo ago

Wait a fire road that just ENDED? That’s actually kind of terrifying, like what if you had bad tires or something. Totally proves the point reed.dylan was making about tagging those spots, no joke. Turning a solo headache into a warning for the next person is just smart. Stuff like that keeps people from having a really bad day out there.

reed.dylan3mo ago

Advocate for hikers to geotag confusing junctions on popular maps. My own misadventure last fall proved how CRITICAL this is. We need to turn individual frustration into collective knowledge.