“We’ll know it when we see it,” my husband tells me after I stop to check the map for the third time. Trail beta for the next water source is particularly enigmatic: The spring is in the middle of a field just past the three-forked tree. I scrutinize the trees—sugar pines, Pacific yews, mountain hemlocks—scattered on the dry ridge, but nothing looks quite right. That seems on-theme for a 360-mile trail named for an elusive beast. Finally, we see it: not Sasquatch, but a massive Shasta fir, with three branches locked in a centuries-old race to reach the sky. It shades a site that’s large enough for a dozen tents, but my husband and I have it to ourselves. We drop our packs as the sun casts a long shadow over the peaks to the south, and find the elusive spring in a field of golden grass. On this trail, seeing is believing.” -Laura Lancaster in Backpacker January 2017
Lauren wrote a nice story about a 16 mile weekend adventure in the Marble Mountain Wilderness along the Bigfoot Trail for Backpacker Magazine. She highlighted the conifer diversity and unique geology along this 16 mile section of trail
This sounds like fun. Can you park at the trail head or do you need to get dropped off?
thanks,
Zack
Sure! There are many national forest trailheads where one could access the trail. The entire route is on public land or right-of-way via road.
I’m thinking about hiking this trail. It will be my first time. I live in the Chicagoland area. It looks like I should fly into Sacramento International and then rent a car to get there. Is this a good option? Does anybody have other suggestions? I’m open to anything and I really value anybody’s expertise. Thank you so much!
Hi Mary Lou – thanks for commenting. Your best bet is to go to our website and join the hikers for him there’s some good information on there about excess of trailheads and what not. Our maps it also has good resources in it. You can get that through a membership or just by buying it.
http://www.bigfoottrail.org
Hi Mary Lou – there are a lot of comments at our hikers gotum http://www.bigfoottrail.org I’d encourage you to check that out. There’s also good information on our map set which you can get through a membership or just by buying it. Happy trails!