Nice fall colors! Great pictures.
But that "trail"!!! Pretty amazing how nice most Sierra trails are in comparison.
Steve, the trails in the east tend to be more gnarly, rocky, and root-filled than in the west. It goes back to many of them being established much earlier, under more austere conditions. Switchbacks are a rarity out here. If a trail goes up a mountain, then it goes UP a mountain, without a lot of concern for details like slope. Some have been re-worked over time due to the erosion factor with such steep angles (they basically turned in to drainages), but there are still plenty that aren't much different than they were 300-400 years ago.
The local mountain I train on has very gnarly trail sections that exceed 1000 vf/mile, similar in slope to the Whitney MR between the Main Trail and the first creek crossing. It was reworked about 20 years ago to switchback a more gentle slope, but a few of us still know where the fun is to be had (about 1500 vf/mile). Just have to dodge the NP Rangers . . .
