Hello Skiers,

On Friday, October 23, nine volunteers removed approximately three dozen fallen trees from Ladera and Elk Ridge Trails on Los Griegos Mountain in the Jemez Mountains. The crew was divided into two groups with one team on each trail.

In addition to the fallen trees that were killed in the Cajete Fire a few years ago, we removed numerous small down trees and debris related to the thinning that was done here about a year ago. We found one very large pile of branches and tree trunks across Ladera Trail, and we cleared a short trail around the pile. Due to the large number of down trees to remove, we got only as far as Griegos Junction and did not work on the switchbacks between Griegos Junction and Upper Road.

The original blue diamonds had burned in the fire, and we had problems locating segments of Ladera Trail. Fortunately, someone, assumed to be a Jemez Ranger District employee, had nailed numerous diamonds to burned trees to mark the trail route.

The hard working volunteers were Bill Savage, Cliff Giles (Friends of the Sandia Mountains), Eric Russell, Carol Meincke, Bronwyn Willis, Marcie and Vincent Amenddagine, David Gabel, and Sam Beard.

A couple of photographs are presented in the attached Word document.

Sam Beard, Trails Chair

N. M. Cross Country Ski Club