Category: Trail Projects

Plan B

  • GET 2024 day 1,  Oct 1, Tuesday
  • Start home, and drive to Shipman Trailhead
  • Stop 0.5 miles below Myers Spring
  • Lopping, searching for water

My original plan to resume a hike on the Gila X Loop fell through. But I had a crazy idea. Russ from the Forest Service sent out an email many weeks ago to several trail groups, requesting work on sections of the Grand Enchantment Trail. What if I spent the month that I had planned hiking a long trail, to instead hang out on my favorite long trail, doing sawing and lopping? I wouldn’t be putting in many miles, and the scenery wouldn’t change as often, but I would get plenty of exercise and be outdoors. I got permission from the USFS to work, through NMVFO, and here I am.

Burma Road to Shipment Trailhead is very rough, and I’m glad an entire trail crew did not have to drive on it

The last time I was at this trailhead was in 2021, as part of my MRT adventure, adding a section of the GET to return home

Lopping begins just past a private in-holding, and soon brush starts to get thick, but the tread is fairly visible.

After a few hundred feet of lopping, I stop brushing and begin hiking to the first possible water source in a drainage, now dry. Hiking towards the next water source at Myer Spring, darkness falls before reaching my goal, and I set up camp.

Grand Enchantment Trailwork 2024 Journal Index

My original plan to resume a hike on the Gila X Loop fell through. But I had a crazy idea: spend a month doing trailwork on the Grand Enchantment Trail in the Apache Kid Wilderness.

Holt Apache Trail 2024

The Gila Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen packed in supplies for eight backpackers for a week of trail work, leaving from Sheridan Corral, near Pleasanton NM (south of Glenwood).

We hiked about 4 miles along Holt Apache Trail #181 to a basecamp at an old cabin site at Holt Springs. We lopped and logged along #181 for about 3.3 miles, close to the intersection with South Fork Whitewater #212.

The trail stayed high on ridges and saddles, with many fine views.

Melissa and I scouted further along Holt Apache, to within 0.9 miles of where my Gila X Loop (version 1.0) route would start following Holt Apache headed east. No one has lopped this section of the trail after a fire several years ago, and locust could be bad, but there are rumors that a Forest Service crew intends to be working on the trail.

Thanks to Melissa, Mark, Patrick, Dave, Steve, Nigel, and Lauri for a fine wilderness adventure, with laughs.

These two photos refer to inside jokes, which I will not explain here.