by jack_glendening » Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:14 pm
Date Hiked: February 11, 2011
General Condition: Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
This report is for the section from Fresno Camp to San Antonio Camp.
Beyond Fresno Camp the trail has not had much use lately. I assume the fact that the trail is now a dead-end and will require back-tracking to get out has discouraged its use. Crossing to the North side of the San Antonio River at Fresno Camp, the next 1.0 mile is very difficult, with much downfall and vines, no clearly discernible track, and an additional 6 river crossings - the trail is supposed to be following an old roadbed but that is often not apparent. You find a pretty 30 ft waterfall, in season (see photo below), after the fifth crossing - a fire ring shows people have camped here to enjoy the falls. After the last river crossing the roadbed/tread becomes more apparent - although easy to lose from time to time in the downfall and growth, this section is less brushy and more easily followed than the section with the river crossings. Beyond San Antonio Camp. you can leave the roadbed, which heads towards private property, to follow the river for another 1/4 mi to reach a stone cabin (see photo below) - note the new picnic table, it's obviously being used by someone!
While the path could be followed by a backpacker, the amount of deadfall that one would have to maneuver around or below would likely not make it very enjoyable.
Because of difficulties following the "trail", I found that in many places my track coming out differed from that going in, since I was purposely not using my outbound knowledge on my return but simply attempting to find the best route I could in each direction. Based on my notes, I've placed what I consider the net "best" route into my on-line trailmap (
http://ventanahiking.net) - it does go though all the obvious trail signs I found (flags, sawed branches, and obvious tread) with a few "spurs" indicating spots where the route in-between could easily differ. To encourage folks to make their own visit to San Antonio Camp and the stone cabin, I've includes waypoints giving locations for the crossings, the waterfall, and cabin in the GPX file you can download from the trailmap.
I note that Schaffer's description differs from what I found. He mentions 10 river crossings whereas I only found 7 (actually he should have found an odd number!?). And he calls the section after the last crossing "cross-country" out to San Antonio Camp, not mentioning the old roadbed. He mentions seeing the waterfall but not San Antonio Camp, so possibly he did not go much further than the waterfall. His mapped trail only goes down to Fresno Camp.
PS: it was interesting to find that the correct location for Fresno Camp illustrated the errors which can be in the terrain data used for both the USGS quadrangle maps and Google Earth. For both, the correct location of Fresno Camp appears to be up on the slope north of the river gully - but if you look closely at Google Earth you can follow the actual river location and see that it does not follow the mapped river gully, instead seeming to flow up the side of the terrain-data-based "hill".
- Attachments
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- San Antonio Trail waterfall
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- Casey Stone Cabin
[b]Date Hiked:[/b] February 11, 2011
[b]General Condition:[/b] Difficult (brushy and/or many deadfalls, faint tread)
This report is for the section from Fresno Camp to San Antonio Camp.
Beyond Fresno Camp the trail has not had much use lately. I assume the fact that the trail is now a dead-end and will require back-tracking to get out has discouraged its use. Crossing to the North side of the San Antonio River at Fresno Camp, the next 1.0 mile is very difficult, with much downfall and vines, no clearly discernible track, and an additional 6 river crossings - the trail is supposed to be following an old roadbed but that is often not apparent. You find a pretty 30 ft waterfall, in season (see photo below), after the fifth crossing - a fire ring shows people have camped here to enjoy the falls. After the last river crossing the roadbed/tread becomes more apparent - although easy to lose from time to time in the downfall and growth, this section is less brushy and more easily followed than the section with the river crossings. Beyond San Antonio Camp. you can leave the roadbed, which heads towards private property, to follow the river for another 1/4 mi to reach a stone cabin (see photo below) - note the new picnic table, it's obviously being used by someone!
While the path could be followed by a backpacker, the amount of deadfall that one would have to maneuver around or below would likely not make it very enjoyable.
Because of difficulties following the "trail", I found that in many places my track coming out differed from that going in, since I was purposely not using my outbound knowledge on my return but simply attempting to find the best route I could in each direction. Based on my notes, I've placed what I consider the net "best" route into my on-line trailmap (http://ventanahiking.net) - it does go though all the obvious trail signs I found (flags, sawed branches, and obvious tread) with a few "spurs" indicating spots where the route in-between could easily differ. To encourage folks to make their own visit to San Antonio Camp and the stone cabin, I've includes waypoints giving locations for the crossings, the waterfall, and cabin in the GPX file you can download from the trailmap.
I note that Schaffer's description differs from what I found. He mentions 10 river crossings whereas I only found 7 (actually he should have found an odd number!?). And he calls the section after the last crossing "cross-country" out to San Antonio Camp, not mentioning the old roadbed. He mentions seeing the waterfall but not San Antonio Camp, so possibly he did not go much further than the waterfall. His mapped trail only goes down to Fresno Camp.
PS: it was interesting to find that the correct location for Fresno Camp illustrated the errors which can be in the terrain data used for both the USGS quadrangle maps and Google Earth. For both, the correct location of Fresno Camp appears to be up on the slope north of the river gully - but if you look closely at Google Earth you can follow the actual river location and see that it does not follow the mapped river gully, instead seeming to flow up the side of the terrain-data-based "hill".
