Shorey Shortcut - Villain or Savior?

[masshysteria]

So what is the real problem with the Shorey Shortcut? I don't think it's any worse than any other trail. Now I'll grant you that it does gain alot of elevation, and then lose some of it to intersect the Range Trail. I suppose it could have been laid out to go right up the valley between Basin and that northeast shoulder of Haystack, thus eliminating the elevation loss. But then you would miss out on that great view of Basin's false summits, and the great view of Haystack from the top of the ridge. Of course, it beats having to go almost to Little Haystack to pick up the Range trail.
Does anyone else feel SSC doesn't deserve the bad rap?

[mcpeak]

The couple of times Ive been out that way I didn't find it to be too difficult. It is a bit steep but doesn't last for very long. I agree that it doesn't live up to its bad name and beats going all the way to little haystack and back.

[Antlerpeak]

I agree it is quite steep but not a lot more difficult than any of the other options. We descended it twice both times when doing a loop up Saddleback over Basin and back down to JBL.

[Neil]

2 years ago my son and I carried full packs up to Gothics along the Weld trail then went on to Saddleback and Basin. We thought we'd do Haystack as well but there was no way that was happening so we bailed to Slant Rock via the Shorey short cut. I assumed all those contour lines meant it was downhill sailing all the way! Too bad I didn't know about the snowbird campsite. The psychological beating was as hard to take as the physical one. Two days later it was déjà vû going from the Opalescent to Lake Arnold.

[Silverback]

I actually like the trail. I would rather ascend than descend, but it is not as tough as many others.

I remember how worried I was before the first time I hiked it because of all the bad press it had. I don't think it is any tougher than the connector trail (do I have that right?) to Haystack.

[pete_hickey]

It is a great butt slide!

Only in winter.

[Hikerdad]

Wow! What a timely post since I just had the pleasure (??) of hiking the Shorey trail four (yes 4) times this past weekend....on Saturday we went up to the Range trail and back in the torrential rain and it was a messy, tough hike....literally like hiking in a stream....on Sunday we did it again...only this time we made it to Basin and Saddleback...I think it is a rough trail with a lot of rock hopping and root "traps"....it has some of the most tangled and big root clumps/steps (I don't know what to call them) that I ever saw. Our speed/time up or down seemed to be about the same...about 50-55 minutes...I think the thing about this trail is that it is just consistently rough with constant rocks and roots...I figure that any trail that takes me as long to go down as up is a rough trail.......The elevation gain/loss was more of an irritant than any thing too demanding.

[mike1889]

I think the Shortcut is sometimes maligned because many hikers walk it after climbing Saddleback and Basin and are returning to the Phelps Trail. The last thing you want to do after climbing 2 (or more) peaks is to climb several hundred feet on a rough trail. It's certainly no worse than many High Peak trails in terms of difficulty.

When I climbed Basin in winter we did the Shorctut on the way to the peak and when we got to the height of land, we left the marked trail and bushwhacked the short distance to the Range Trail without losing the 300 or so feet of elevation that the trail loses. I don't recommend doing this in summer, but deep snow covered the vegetation and made for a relatively easy, short bushwhack.

[Gwahir]

For another take on the question at hand, I developed elevation profiles using Terrain Navigator Pro software.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/cropwalk/ShoreyShortCut.jpg

and the Phelps Trail:

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/cropwalk/PhelpsTrail.jpg

Here's the distances involved:

Shorey Short Cut:

Total distance: 1 mile, 1938 feet
Climbing: 469 meters
Descending: -114 meters
Elevation change: 355 meters

Phelps Trail:

Total distance: 1 mile, 1013 feet
Climbing: 386 meters
Descending: -31 meters
Elevation change: 355 meters

Neil's comment that map contours aren't always easy to interpret struck home, and I think these kind of graphics can sometimes put things in a clearer light. Useful for hike planning purposes, or just for fun for nerds like me.

[Gwahir]

Sorry, thought I knew how to post images but apparently it didn't work.

[Neil]

To post an image it must already be on a website. What you post on the forum is a link to that image. Place the image's full URL between the img tags and it should display. At least I think that's how it works.

[mcpeak]

you can use imagevenue.com to post an image. They will give you the tags to post to a forum and they should look something like this to give a clickable thumbnail
["URL=http://img11.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc185&image=image.jpg]["IMG]http://img11.imagevenue.com/loc185/image.jpg[/IMG"][/URL"]
without the quotes...

[Rivet]

Your server (angelfire) may block attempts to link directly to images that are not on a web page located on that server.

[Gwahir]

I tried again using ImageVenue.

Phelps Trail profile:

http://img21.imagevenue.com/loc222/th_312_PhelpsTrail.jpg (http://img21.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc222&image=312_PhelpsTrail.jpg)


Shorey Short Cut profile:

http://img24.imagevenue.com/loc208/th_c73_ShoreyShortCut.jpg (http://img24.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc208&image=c73_ShoreyShortCut.jpg)

These are thumbnails, so if you click on them you get a larger though rather grainier rendering. Elevation is in meters, horizontal distance in miles (go figure.)