From 2369 going west, the trail follows an easy descent for the first few hundred yards adjacent to an old logging road.  We then cross the road and begin 6-8% hillside descent for a quarter of a mile before entering an older clear cut.  The grade then averages 7-10% through the clear cut, around the hillside and continues on the north face of the ridge.  We then make the first of the four switchbacks needed to complete the descent to the creek.  All of the switchbacks on this subsection are located in good areas and should be "relatively" easy to build.

A note on the location of our creek crossing: we didn't have many good options for placement.  Just upstream from the crossing is a wet area that we had to avoid.  Crossing even further upstream placed the ascents to both hills in very rocky terrain with no viable trail placement.  The drawback to our chosen crossing is that the immediate ascent towards FS 2231 has a 15-20% grade for a few dozen yards.  We have limited ourselves to a maximum 10% grade during all routing to this point.  Given the limitations of this particular creek crossing and our adherence to grade restrictions everywhere else, we felt that we had little choice but bend the specs for this short stretch.  The use of waterbar "steps" might be considered during construction.

After the trail levels out, we brought it over to the edge of a nice 25' bluff overlooking a scenic waterhole.  We then begin an 8-10% ascent with two switchbacks before rounding the face of the ridge, and then follow the west side to FS 2231.  Some of this ascent is at 8-10% grade and the remainder at 6-8%, dipping occasionally through some very mild gullies.

Note: there is a seldom-used ATV trail that goes through the creek valley that may need to be posted. 

- John Roth & Paul Nazarenko