I took a vacation day yesterday and headed up to the Rimrock trail - hoping to maybe hike the MP3 trail as well.  Yesterday was not a great day for the normally awesome views that you get from the Rimrock overlook, but it was still fun.

This was the "view" from the overlook at about 1:00:

While I was hiking the trail, I noticed how wide the corridor was.  It is getting a bit overgrown now, but I could just imagine pack trains on horses/mules heading down this trail to re-supply the lookouts.  This must have been a pretty busy trail in its day:

On the way back, I also finally found the junction with the MP3 trail - here is a section of the upper MP3 trail.  I gave it a little love (trail maintenance) since it was looking a little sad - it doesn't look like it has had much in the way of traffic for a while:

And later in the day, the fog burned off a bit - Here is a view from the upper rockslide on MP3:

And here is why the junction with MP3 is so hard to find now.  There is a HUGE mess of blowdown at the junction.  I happened to notice a "704" sign on the trail and through it was a weird place for a trail sign, but then realized it was right where the MP3 trail came it - but you can't really tell due to all the blowdown:

It is even worse than it looks in that photo.  Right at that junction, and for a bit, there are probably 6-7 trees across the trail - one BIG tree that came down right on the tread, plus several smaller ones (but nothing I could cut with my handsaw).  I was able to slide a few off the trail, so there are a couple less than there were.  I also did some brushing and removed a lot of sticks and rocks from the trail.  The tread is in great shape, it just needs some logs removed and probably some more brushing down lower.

On the way home I found the lower trailhead - wow, is that well camouflaged!  I followed it up a hundred feet or so, and saw someone had put up a wilderness sign on a tree!  Not one of the wood ones, but it looks like one of the older metal signs.  Not sure who put it there but it was interesting.  I definitely have to get back and hike the MP3 trail again.  It has been a long time since I hiked it.  I'm glad I was able to close the loop on where it hits the Rimrock trail, though.