The routing of the Trail indicates something you may have noticed about Wilfornia -- it is a rough place to travel through and saner folk will avoid it. The original Cimarron route shaved many miles off the trip, but at the expense of reliable water and a bit more travail. Some traders on the Trail ended up establishing communities and ranches in Wilfornia if they were of particularly tough stock and wanted to settle down in untamed lands to the south.