Trail Projects – Page 37 – Sagebrush Trails

Mora Fish Hatchery 2019

The NMVFO camped at the Mora National Fish Hatchery in northern New Mexico the weekend of June 1 to build new trail and clear older trail. This most recent of federal fish hatcheries came on-line in 1998.

The agency allowed us to camp near a “bunkhouse” with kitchen, which helped our cook Cindy to provide wonderful hearty meals.

Our agency contact, Daniel, gave us a tour of the facilities Saturday morning. This hatchery recycles 95% of its water, unlike most hatcheries that are built near a river, and require extensive filtering and treatment. A close-loop system such as Mora’s gives the ability to raise both cold water and warm water fish, and also helps block outside pathogens.

The Mora facility was given the mission to raise threatened Gila Trout, native to southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona, after another federal hatchery was flooded and destroyed. Seven lineages of Gila Trout are raised here, and great efforts are made to maximize genetic diversity in the low populations, including keeping track of families within lineages by chipping fish, and analyzing populations genetically to figure out which family should mate with another family to reduce inbreeding.

South Sandia Backpack 2019

Five volunteers with New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors, NMVFO, hiked in from the Canyon Estates trailhead along the South Sandia Crest Trail to a basecamp near the intersection with the Embudito Trail on Friday, May 17. This turned out to be a dry camp, as the snow had very recently melted, so we hauled water 0.8 miles from South Sandia Spring, still running.

We cleared logs and lopped brush along the trail for several days, as far north as the intersection with Barts Trail, hiking out again Monday afternoon, May 20.

Here is a before/after shots of trail after clearing the corridor of brush:

At elevation 9320 feet, base camp was rather cold the first night, but improved later with overcast nights.

Gila River CDT Alternate, 2019

Volunteers organized by the CDTC (Continental Divide Trail Coalition), with help from the NMVFO (New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors), Heart of the Gila, and Back Country Horsemen Gila Chapter, worked to improve trail on the Middle Fork of the Gila River from May 3 to May 8. Most arrived on May 2, camping at the Upper Scorpion Campground near the
Gila Cliff Dwellings, or nearby Woody’s Corral. We hiked in about 7 miles to a base camp near Jordan Hot Springs, and did work for several days along the river, lopping trees to widen the trail corridor, building cairns to mark river crossings, and doing some tread work.