Oregon Hikers

Many legacy trails from before 1940 were built to service fire lookouts which were too remote to service any way but via pack animals. Since the horses or mules were doing all the walking, while the wrangler rode along, such niceties as switchbacks and an even gradient were not a high priority. When recreational hiking became more of a thing after WWII ended and the FS was ambitiously creating more recreational infrastructure, building trails to a more demanding set of specifications became the norm. Some of the older trails were even rerouted and upgraded just for us hikers.