Devil's lake old sandstone trail closure?

Does anyone know why the erstwhile trail to the top of old sandstone area has been closed off? How long ago did this happen? My buddies and I were up in the area and noticed the trail to be plugged up with trees that have been intentionally moved. It almost looked like they don't want climbers up at the top. We also noticed that another trail has been fashioned out (either by climbers or the same group). If they wanted to prevent erosion in general isn't it better to limit it to an existing trail rather than creating another one?

varunr89 wrote:Does anyone know why the erstwhile trail to the top of old sandstone area has been closed off? How long ago did this happen? My buddies and I were up in the area and noticed the trail to be plugged up with trees that have been intentionally moved. It almost looked like they don't want climbers up at the top. We also noticed that another trail has been fashioned out (either by climbers or the same group). If they wanted to prevent erosion in general isn't it better to limit it to an existing trail rather than creating another one?

Varun,
I don't quite understand which trail you are describing. The trail to access the top of the bluffs @ old sandstone or the trail to access the bottom of the climbing area from the road? I have not been to old sandstone for quite a while, so I can't comment on trail closures. I wonder if this would be a good candidate for a work day, as I agree with you on the impact of another trail vs. work on existing trail... Maybe someone with more visibility of trail work done in this area will comment. Glad to hear you are getting out!

MR

mountainproject.com/v/old-s…

See comment at bottom of page. Erstwhile is a word I have never used.

Meanwhile, see here.

speedy83racing wrote:Meanwhile, see here.

This makes so much more sense. However, this is not very obvious on the ground.
I wish I took a photo of it but when we were up there this weekend it looked like climbers have been using a 3rd access trail to reach the top of the cliff. This 3rd trail is located right next to the old access trail and climbs a less steep rock feature compared to the original one. I feel there should be a signage (at least a temporary one) pointing people in the right direction. I don't think the piled up brush was an effective communication because every climber in the area this weekend used the 3rd trail which only exacerbates the erosion problem.

Chris treggE wrote:Erstwhile is a word I have never used.

Chris,
Not the first time I've got that. It might be a British-English thing.

Their will be more trail work done to the new access trail in the coming weeks to better it and make it more obvious, as well as down tree removal as necessary. I personally have not yet been up there this spring (or even last fall) but have been involved in a conversation or two about it.

The new trail should help prevent erosion and make it a more viable long term solution for us climbers to use and be good stewards. Just like all the work that was done (3 years ago?) by the WCA and the access fund trail crew to better the trail from the car to the cliff, this will better the cliff bottom to the top. Please do not remove the road blocks of fallen timber put in place there, just like the road blocks put in place below the Gills nose area back to Congratulations to help with the erosion happening below our climbers access trail there.

Yeah, a sign would be a good idea. Someone want to volunteer to get it done? We may be up there this coming weekend to cut out the logs across the trails.

I'm not sure what it says about climbers that no one bothered to look around the rock to the left, AND that no one cleaned out the (obviously placed there) logs clogging the old access.

Doug Hemken wrote:Yeah, a sign would be a good idea. Someone want to volunteer to get it done? We may be up there this coming weekend to cut out the logs across the trails.

What day were you thinking? If no one else volunteers and everyone is ok with British-English :) , I can volunteer to get a sign up.

Chris treggE wrote: Erstwhile is a word I have never used.

And you used it as a noun! Good work.

Varun, I think we were aiming for sunday (but the forecast doesn't look great). Let's check in thursday or friday?

Doug Hemken wrote:Varun, I think we were aiming for sunday (but the forecast doesn't look great). Let's check in thursday or friday?

Sunday's works well for me. Let's check in Thursday/Friday, I'll shoot you an email.

The fallen logs have been cleared from the access trail.