Hit 100 miles on the Kettle Crest loop near Sherman Pass, and the trail sign math finally made sense

Xena Jackson · 2026-10-16T04:30:10.050393+00:00

I hiked the Kettle Crest north loop out of Sherman Pass in Washington over 3 days and logged 100.4 miles on my watch. What caught my eye was a wooden sign at the Snow Peak cabin junction listing distances that seemed off, so I started checking them against my GPS at every marker. Over 14 miles of ridge walking, the old sign numbers ran about 8 percent short compared to the track I was recording. Turns out the signs date from when trails got measured with a wheel, so switchbacks and reroutes never got folded in. I started mentally adding a mile to every posted figure past Juniper and it kept me from pushing too far before dark. Anyone else seen relic mileage markers on Forest Service trails that are way off, or is this just a Kettle Crest thing?

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Hit 100 miles on the Kettle Crest loop near Sherman Pass, and the trail sign math finally made sense | Backpacking Routes - Guest Forum