When attempting to get to Vado, I would not recommend following the "trail", rather follow the GPS track which approximates the trail, this will avoid brush. The GPS track avoids a short brush covered section of trail near where the trail leaves the Manuel/Post-Summit Ridgeline as well as a brush covered section of trail near Vado.

I attempted Mount Manuel trail [to Vado] last year in October and it was one of the worst overgrown trails in Ventana (and that's saying a lot) not for the light of heart, after 8 hours of bushwhacking, I gave up and ended up turning back very cut up, bloody, and tired and just trail ran back into Big Sur station.

Again thanks for all the great information. I have gone up the East Molera trail several times and really enjoy it. Like I said I have camped below the steep jeep road and found water. I have also camped around Post Summit. I want to in the future drive further down 1 and explore into other areas.

The climb up the old tractor trail is steep and arduous but not particularly slippery or otherwise difficult.
The Vado camp will have water at it this year, at other times it may be necessary to go "upstream" to find water.
The camp is in good shape, a sign and a grill are still there as "improvements". The table was burned in 2008.
When approaching the camp from the south, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile from camp is an open/non-brushy minor ridge from this point it is not advisable to attempt to follow the trail, simply descend the ridge until a point where you can avoid dense brush going north then descend northward until regaining the trail some 200ft below (as shown in the attached gpx)
You can load the gpx file into the Gaia App on your phone, if you record your own route using the app it will show your new route and the loaded route on the screen, in this way you can see your proximity to the "known" trail. I believe the Mt Manuel trail has been traversed once in its entirety in the past 20 years or so, don't expect good "trail" conditions. In Shaeffer's guidebook for the area in the "1998 update" he says I don't believe any work has been done on the trail since then.

Thank you. You dropped straight down on the old Jeep road. I have a camped at the bottom. It looks quite steep? With a backpack will it be tough to climb that?

Hello Wayne,

I "penciled in" the most direct route I have used to access Vado camp. As you can see the route passes NNW of post summit. The western portion of the route is a decayed tractor trail, the portion proceeding east from point "3342" is an offtrail ridgeline. The ridgline is gained by punching through a copse of bay trees which is south of point 3342, after punching through the short section of trees at the top of the ridge you can traverse to the ridgetop and descend it until you reach the redwoods and intersect the Mt Manual trail. I can send you the GPX file which will allow you to follow my route to reach Vado from that point in the redwoods.
The other option would be to follow the GPX file from near the top of Mt Manual.


I used that route on the return to highway 1 when doing this dayhike:
https://www.gaiagps.com/public/lO0CiRUH ... RasterFeet

The Gaia map shows the tractor trail to point "3343". My phone, recording the track, ran out of power at the tracks northern point, at that point I turned back a bit then xcountry to the east molera trail as described. Note the interesting starting point of the gaia track, that may be the quickest route to Post Summit.

Long time ago I asked about some ways to get to Vado. I was told one way is to drop down a ridgeline near Post Summit. Has anyone done this recently? How is Vado camp? Is there water? Any other thoughts would be appreciated.