EISPIRATEN

I hiked down from Shortcut Saddle on ACH to the West Fork on the first day of the ACH road re-opening. A lot of construction traffic was out on ACH. The upper part of the trail passes through chaparral which probably burned down to the soil in the Station fire, and the re-growth is now averaging knee high. Further down in Shortcut Canyon, the trees are mostly ghosted, but there is plenty of green understory; the trail is rougher here, but continuously flagged and it is easy to follow the route, though the trail will need some rebuilding here and there. Stream crossings are flagged with little 'Home Depot' imprinted flags (yes, some are orange, but others are a mis-colored red...). West Fork CG is in excellent shape and was deserted late on a Fri. afternoon. There are 3 waterfalls ranging between 20' - 40' that are currently visible on the 4 mile route, and they are easier to spot in the uphill direction.

Tom, thanks for the TR on trail conditions. I hope you continue to post TR's - always good to get info on stuff.

sorry Tom ...

One thing that struck me was the mention of all of the 'flagging' that marked the trail. Do you think it was trail maintenance crews that put it up or was it hikers/trail runners? I hate seeing flagging and I usually tear it down. It's litter.

I'm guessing the flagging is from the trail crews. I saw a lot on the Red Box to West Fork hike last weekend and a lot of it had writing on it pertaining to brush clearance, etc..