[Ramadimajor]

Paseyton Wilderness - Buckskin Route Trip started nicely down Slate pass and across up over to silver lake for the first night. Not too many people other than 2 couples with babies. One couple taking up two camp sites which we felt was a bit rude. Next day up over Silver Pass on trail 498. Beautiful hike. Encountered a couple with goats packing their supplies. Down Silver Pass was very rough - suggest no pack animals at all. Traveling around the west side of Buckskin was the most difficult hike we have ever done. Extremely steep, poorly maintained trail and found trash from other people which we picked up. Around and over to Buckskin lake, no people at all and very windy but beautiful. Leaving Buckskin lake we took a wrong turn and ended up climbing to near Buckskin Point until the trail disappeared. Finally found the trail and made our way to just below Buckskin Point where the trail again took us in the wrong direction and disappeared. We backtracked and finally, through serious recon, found the trail which led us down Buckskin ridge to the freeway, trail 478. At this point the beauty was gone and the trail turned incredibly dusty and covered in horse droppings. I highly suggest you avoid this trail at all costs. Very smelly, very crowded, very worn by pack animals. We ended up back at slate pass. Tough trip, many downed logs on Buckskin ridge, not maintained at all.

[Inspired Thought]

Yeah 478 was a little dusty when I went through last week too. The trail is less dusty earlier in the year when soil moisture is higher. Once we get a little rain the dust will drop again.

[D. Inscho]

Pasayten valley trails=bad attitude. Avoid them if you can; they are not worth their "loop value". Best left to the profiteering commercial horsepacking outfits As for navigation, The Mighty Pasayten is famous for its cartographic curve-balls; count it as part of the fun? When will you post pictures?

[jyojt]

took the same wrong turns last week and ended up making a mile in 6+ hrs wasting the day i needed to get down to the river. camped 2 nights in a row at BS lake. was really glad i got confused abotut the trails as i was able to get up to BS point and mess around the ridge some more. skipped the river trail and backtracked back to silver lakes for my last night and got to skip all that dust down in the valley. was defiantly a challenging trek but well worth it. glad i turned it into a out and back for sure

[AlpineRose]