Cherry Orchard Trail Re-route (March 17, 2009)

[cfm]

I visited the Cherry Orchard Preserve today. The lower half of the trail has changed pretty dramatically. For those of you who haven't hiked it before, the bottom portion was essentially a steep straight shot up a gully. The trail doesn't get much use, and at times it seemed just like a critter path.

The new trail is very wide, and it seems like they did a good job with the rock work and drainage. It has huge wide switchbacks taking you past some interesting rock formations and through a big scree field. It adds some distance, but makes the climb much easier. The new work stops and rejoins the old trail at the point where it turns east to climb the upper bluffs to the oak woodland. They may be back to continue their work all the way to the cherry orchard.

Here you can see one of the switchbacks of the new trail. Right in the middle of the shot, the old trail is a faint line crossing horizontally:

castle-like formation:

I don't know who did the work, but thank you!