Category: Trail Projects

• GET 2024 day 10, Oct 10, Thursday
• Start San Mateo Spring campsite
• End San Mateo Spring campsite
• Cleared uncountable trees from 1.0 miles of Apache Kid Trail

Today my plan is to only saw, and leave the loppers at camp. First the route goes through a burn area with many standing snags.

And then we get to aspen, early growers after a fire.

The aspen is really encroaching on the trail corridor, and it would have been hard to resist lopping if I had brought the tool.

Several tangles of trees are cleared. I can see from saw marks that a crew has already gone through cutting, but many fresh trees are down since then.

Often trees can be moved off the trail without a cut, but long aspen and many-branching fir ensures that plenty of sawing was needed.

Being late in the season, possibly no one else will hike this trail before winter snow and wind. Try not to think about all the fresh blow-downs that will happen before the next hiker…

• GET 2024 day 9, Oct 9, Wednesday
• Start home and town
• End near San Mateo Spring
• Cleared blowdowns on Apache Kid Trail near San Mateo Spring

I drove to  Springtime Campground in late afternoon, and was pleased to see the facilities in good shape. Sometimes a high water event will flood the normally dry creek running through camp, and mess up the road, but today all looks fine among tall Gambel oak and a few ponderosa.

Hiking up Apache Kid Trail, it was surprising how much oak was on the trail, considering that we lopped this section in 2021 with NMVFO.

Approaching the ridge, fine views to the east reward the climb.

At the intersection with Shipman Trail, a fallen tree hides faint tread on Shipman. This is unfortunate, because NMVFO worked to make the trail clearer here on their last project.

My goal for today is San Mateo Spring, which I have seen with good water, and at other times completely dry. Today the trough is dry, but a slow leak at a pipe joint going to the trough may be enough to keep me supplied with water.

Camp is at a nearby saddle we used on a backpacking trail project in 2021. Cell reception there is possible, though spotty.

There are enough blowdowns to keep me busy for days. Sorry, loppers, you will have to wait.

• GET 2024 day 8, Oct 8, Tuesday
• Start Home
• End Home
• Rest and recuperation, no lopping, no sawing

A Zero Day refers to a hiker hiking zero miles in a day, or taking a day off, typically in a town off-trail. Here on this unusual adventure it can also refer to zero lopping and zero sawing.

My family treats me to dinner at La Pasadita in Socorro. Good therapy.

Equipment Issues:

• My Platypus squeeze bag to my Quickdraw water filter is leaking. I thought this bag would work better than a Sawyer bags, because the material is thicker, but apparently not. Platypus: consider double seams.
• A buckle and strap on my AtomPack managed to work its way out of its fastener, and is lost on the trail.
• My shaded safety glasses got lost on trail the last day, but I found them again.
• The short 6″ Fiskar saw lost its hinge nut on the trail, with photo in a previous post.
• Numerous rips and tears in shirt and pants. I could not find iron-on patches in time to return to the trail.
• The plants I am lopping are really tough. Maybe I should switch to a geared lopper. At any rate, my current lopper now needs sharpening.

Tomorrow back to the trail.