Nine volunteers from the Gila Chapter of NM Backcountry Horsemen (BCH-Gila) and NMVFO teamed up for a 4-day backpacking trail project along Bear Canyon Trail in the Gila National Forest. We met at the trailhead on Fiero Road (past the village of Fiero and an old iron mine, north of the Chino copper mine) where horsepeople loaded gear for us.
Nights and mornings were cold, but BCH-Gila brought along a “hot tent”, heated by a packable titanium woodstove.
We lopped, did treadwork, blazed 20 trees (both sides!), and built 39 cairns on almost 2 miles of trail, to the intersection with Allie, in an attempt to make a path disappearing under ponderosa pine needles easier to navigate. The first full day of work brought intermittent snow flurries.
A huge thanks goes out to leaders and volunteers.
