Troutdog 59 wrote:Hey Tom,
Some very good information TT. I have also heard accounts of Reagans involvement in the decision not to build the proposed "Minarets Highway." I guess the packers out of there and Jones Store in Beasore Meadows took him on a pack trip and he loved it. Thank goodness for small miracles!!! I had no idea about the proposed Kearsrge route
. Do you still have the NPS booklet? If so, any chance of scanning and sharing it. No big deal, just asking!!
t
I did find it, but I don't have my scanner hooked up so it might be a while before I can post an image. It's in the Official National Park Handbook series, Handbook 145, isbn 0-912627-47-6--well worth getting used if you can find it (alibris has copies, it looks like).
The only thing I can think of off hand is why is the Theodore Solomons trail called that when his primary goal was exploring the areas that the Muir Trail and Sierra High Route follows. and not so much on the Western side that the Theodore Solomons trail follows?
The short version is: because the route he scouted was already named after somebody else (Muir).
I happen to have the original 1987 Guide to the Theodore Solomons Trail by Dennis Gagnon, who came up with the idea of a JMT alternative and turned it into the TST. From the introduction:
Over tea with Ranger Dana Abell of SNP, I described my project for an alternate trail.
"You know," commented Abell, "if there is to be another trail through this country, it really ought to be named for Theodore Solomons."
"Who?" I asked.
"Why Solomons, the young man who first scouted out the John Muir Trail."
So, basically, it's named after Solomons because it made sense to name a north-south trail after the guy who first came up with the idea of a north-south trail through the Sierra.
That said, the TST does cover some of the same territory Solomons explored: Tehipite Valley & the Monarch Divide; the Balloon Dome/Middle Fork San Joaquin area. So it's not as random as it might seem.