Vista Ridge Cutoff to FR 2840?

[idoru]

A while back, I noticed that Google Maps shows a trail that, shortly after you enter the burn zone, cuts down the ridge to the east and over to FR 2840. I didn't notice it when I was out that way last year, and when I was there last week I half-assedly kept an eye out for it but never saw it. It doesn't show up on CalTopo, AllTrails, Gaia, or any other resource I've looked at, just Google Maps. My hunch is that maybe this either used to exist in some form or another but was destroyed during the Dollar Lake fire, or never existed to begin with?

Curious if anyone has ever noticed this path before.

[adamschneider]

There's a ghost of an old road further east, but no trail down the hill. I don't know what Google Maps is smoking.

[bobcat]

A few years ago, three of us did a loop with that "connector" as a feature:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=25948

We tracked it on GPS, but I can say it probably never existed. We followed that abandoned road out, which was not pleasant or easy. Doing that same loop, I would just take trails (Vista Ridge and then Pinnacle Ridge), which would be a little longer but would probably take a little less time and be more scenic.

There are a few marked "trails" on maps, etc., that may have been planned, maybe on the drawing board, but never built. These phantom trails still crop up decades later, repeated in all the latest technology!