Sagebrush personal hiking blog
17 NMVFO volunteers gathered at the group site at Water Canyon Campground for the weekend, to work on several trails in the nearby mountains. On Saturday I hiked with one team on a 10 mile loop of Hop Canyon Trail #25, North Baldy Trail, and Hop Canyon #25A, removing all deadfalls and doing some much-needed lopping on Magdalena Ridge.
Seven NMVFO volunteers completed an unsupported backpack project (meaning no horse packs or cooks) , working on the Rio Nambe Trail and Lower Nambe Trail and Upper Nambe Trail in the Pecos Wilderness, sawing deadfalls and lopping. We gathered at Winsor Trailhead near the Santa Fe Ski Area, and hiked along Winsor Trail and Upper Nambe Trail to La Vega (Spanish: “the meadow”) to set up camp.
Then we backtracked on Upper Nambe and Winsor to the junction with Lower Nambe Trail. We took this circuitous route to avoid elevation changes and hiking more than necessary on Lower Nambe, known as the “Elevator Shaft”, a steep trail with few switchbacks.
We spent the rest of the day sawing and lopping on Lower Nambe, working our way downhill to the junction with Rio Nambe Trail.
The two new Katanaboy 650 folding saws we recently acquired worked amazingly well on our small diameter aspens and spruce, and were much easier to carry than a traditional crosscut saw.
Continue reading “Rio Nambe Trail 2020”Fifteen NMVFO volunteers camped one weekend at the (currently-closed for Covid) El Porvenir Christian Camp, at an empty ball-field, and worked along the three mile stretch of Porvenir Canyon Trail between the wilderness boundary and Hollinger Canyon Trail junction.
When some of us arrived on Thursday, remains of snow were still on the ground, and the night was cold.
Friday a few people arrived, and we stayed in one group and hiked 5 miles up to the top of the mountain at the trail junction with Hollinger Canyon Trail, and worked down, clearing deadfalls and doing some lopping. We hiked through patches of snow in the morning.
