Category: Trail Projects

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.

Latino Outdoors NM organized a festival at Barelas Community Park in Albuquerque, and invited several outdoor groups to staff tables at the event.

Five NMVFO volunteers gave a 2-person crosscut saw demonstration, and allowed members of the public to try out the saw.

Fourteen NMVFO volunteers gathered at the Trail Canyon Trailhead, many camping overnight, for a cook-supported one day lopping project on the Manzano Crest going north of the Trail Canyon intersection. This was my first visit to Trail Canyon, and the drive in on the unmaintained road was amazingly bad: high clearance vehicles and brave drivers only, please. This is a shame, because the trailhead area hosted countless maple trees and seedlings, and the colors will be amazing in the fall, and much less crowded than 4th of July Campground.

After hiking up to the crest on a gentle grade, we hiked further until the brush got really thick, and lopped all day.