Yesterday, Monday, April 10, 2023, Sally and I thought we might take advantage of the fine spring weather and do some sort of hike on the west side of the Sandias where at least the lower portions of the trails would be dry and free of snow. Recalling a report issued recently by Bill Kearns, we decided to try Pino trail. Bill had indicated in his report that a large tree that had fallen across Pino trail had been removed but due to time constraints, he said that some of the "finish work" could not be completed. We thought perhaps we could do some remediation work there as needed. We discovered the reported tree about 2.9 miles up from the dirt parking lot at the Pino trailhead.

We took turns using the large Silky saw to cut back the upper portion of the fallen tree back a little farther from the trail. The mini-McLeod came in handy for the tread work and filling the root ball hole.

The trail seemed unusually busy for a Monday. Someone mentioned that the APS schools were still closed so that may have been a possible reason. We had assumed that the upper portions of the trail might still have significant snow. This was confirmed a by a number of hikers who passed us on the way up then came back down saying the snow/ice forced them to turn back well before the switchbacks at the top. It was a bright, sunny, warm day with little or no breeze. The warmth was especially noticeable in the afternoon return through the Open Space area.