Basin Bushwhack to Liberty Springs

[Mike P.]

Thinking I am heading up on Friday for a Car/bike Franconia Ridge Traverse. Will park at Lafayette Place for OBP and then pedal down to the Basin. I've searched the archives and it appears that the bushwhack to the Liberty Trail turn is about .3 and it's about a .3 bushwhack on an old logging road.

Anyone have more current info on the difficulty of finding the start of the bushwhack from the bike path?

Thanks

 

[bikehikeskifish]

0.4 mi from parking lot, turn left/southeast. It's actually on CalTopo as a .2 mile stretch. My track is overlaid on it in this map:

https://caltopo.com/m/CV5G

Hope this helps,
Tim

 

[DayTrip]

It is pretty easy to spot. I had previously asked this question wondering the same thing. It appeared there were several paths that went into woods and crossed a small brook but they all link to same herd path on far side of the little brook and the path is very obvious from that point to Liberty Trail. Here is a photo of three trees that mark the start of path:

 

[jniehof]

Every time I look for an obvious landmark and every time I'm foiled. Now I know where it is by "feel." Very roughly: it's a reasonably flat section, there's a brook smack up against the left side of the path (southbound), in the middle of an S curve, a few culverts. Basically it's pretty "watery" (it's essentially the old mill site). This winter there was a log across the stream to cross that was a pretty definitive landmark.

If you're playing with map or GPS, the old road comes straight down the fall line from the sharp turn in Liberty Spring; it doesn't go in the same direction as the descending trail.

People like to argue about this, but if you intend to "count" the peaks for a list, look at the 4000-footer rules for bikes and decide if you want to park the bike at the Basin rather than continue all the way through to the start of the bushwhack.

 

[Damselfly]

If you wanted to reverse your loop...the small bushwhack you seek is super easy to grab on the downhill, as it takes off from the sharp bend (see the map Tim put up). Not to complicate things. But you can't miss it on the downhill... and may miss it on the up hill.