Quick poll: sagebrush or scrub oak, which side of the loop do you like better
No wrong answer. I lean sagebrush side but that's just me, I once got weirdly obsessed with one particular bush and sketched it eight times trying to get the branches right. Never did figure it out. Curious where the group lands.
Scrub oak side for me, mostly cause the shade matters more once the sun's up past 8 or so... Sagebrush side does have better footing though, less rock scatter for sure. Reed, if you want the branch structure to make sense, sketch it in winter first. No leaves to lie to you about where the joints are lol! Thanks
scrub oak side, no contest. sagebrush section holds heat different, less canopy the ground radiates back up at you even when the air temp seems fine, that's why it feels worse than the thermometer says by june like daniel was saying in the other thread. still surprised he's team orchard row after admitting the exposed parts wreck him, guess the knees are calling the shots over the heat tolerance lol. scrub oak's got its own problem though, way more uneven footing where the roots cross the trail if your ankles are the weak link instead of your knees its a different trade off. i've been mapping this stuff out for my model got elevation data from a couple different points on the loop and the shade coverage isn't as consistent as people think, there's a stretch mid-loop on the scrub oak side that's basically as exposed