Rick & Paul,
The last 3 times I've seen him at the springs, his bike was parked near the "freedom trail." As I have stated previously, he was the originator of this trail, otherwise known as the trail of least resistance. How ever this trail was on some maps that dated back to the 70's that I observed. So, apparently this trail was in use long ago. His motorcycle apparently has preserved this old trail.
The trail you mentioned Rick, was known as the indian camp trail. And I observed Mike useing that trail also. Back in '98 before the forest service spent 2.5 million $ of our money to deter it's use. They insalled a 1 inch cable around the perimeter of the enterance, and rerouted the road around in another direction. This took almost all of that summer to do.
This action was good for Mike because people were constantly annoying Mike for help as they got stuck or hurt there.
Mike stated 'they were only making it more fun and challenging'.
Glad to help !