I've hiked from the valley floor to Rainbow View on OBOFR. Great hike. I've never gone beyond Rainbow View, but would like to do so. Researching the rest of the old road, and looking at a current map, I expected it would continue from Rainbow View across Fireplace Ck, Coyote Ck (perhaps Cascade Ck if far enough to the north/uphill) and eventually meet with the current road to Tamarack Flat Campground. From there, it follows the current road out (and across) Tioga Road, along a current fire road somewhat parallel to and north of Tioga Road (not sure how visible that is), coming back and merging with Tioga Road for a while, then "shortcutting" the loop in Tioga Road by basically following the roadbed that goes through Tuolomne Grove (I thought that the original OBOFR actually brought travelers through Tunnel Tree as a tourist adventure spot) and then either to Crane Flat or meeting the current BOFR somewhere west of Crane Flat.
1) Is the route I've fabricated (in my mind) even close to correct?
2) Did OBOFR go through Tunnel Tree?
3) What the heck is the tie-in (if my route is close at all) to the trailhead on BOFR above Foresta marked "OBOFR Trail"? It doesn't seem to me that OBOFR went anywhere near there.
Bonus question: Is it worth finding the old Coulterville Road and following that? I read once before (but now cannot find) that there is a nice waterfall along that route.
Edit: Further research indicates that OBOFR did not follow the current alignment of BOFR from Crane Flat to BOF entrance station, but instead roughly from Tuolumne Grove to Hodgdon Meadows. Also looks like the OBOFR Trailhead is just a way to get to the OBOFR Trail from current BOFR.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2014 12:25PM by ags.