The Mystery Trail is no longer a mystery to me… I can see how this trail would be “hard” if one were to come up it…that would also be insanely NUTS! Definitely more fun to go down. It looks as though you could use a number of routes to get to the top…from short and steep, to long and gradual, although either way you’ve still got to gain 3000′. We decided to do the short & steep approach. We took the Rock of Ages trail up the ridge to the Plateau. The actual Mystery Trail (MT) is a steep downhill scramble that descends a ridge that leads to the base of Saint Peter’s Dome. The trail is faint in spots, but if you stay on the ridge, you should be fine. The descent includes three forest rappels…a couple of clean ones, and one loose dirty one. I’m not sure what the lengths of the raps are, but nothing over 80’. We tagged the Little St Pete’s pinnacle too…Bonus! The trip, including LSP, took us about 7-hours truck to truck. We parked at the Horsetail Falls parking lot.
Fun time with a strong team.
Great page Karl, esp. this here TR. Brings back memories – some of them are even good 🙂