Hi everyone,

The trail-building crew had an interesting morning today, parking in the 10K North lot and hiking in ~2 miles, well past the beginning (south end) of the new 10KN reroute (with new blue diamonds - thanks Sam Beard and Mike Madden!). The aim was to begin work on a new segment of the Osha Loop Trail, which will extend Osha southwestwards to connect with the new 10K alignment. Russell Berman, Cibola NF Trails & Wilderness Manager, had pin-flagged part of the new segment a few weeks prior.

Upon reaching what we thought was probably(?) the location of the future junction, the crew dropped their tools to scout along a ribbon-flag line, to find the location where the pin-flags would start (pin-flags mark the actual tread, while ribbon flags on branches only mark a general direction). However, the ribbon-flag line petered out, so there was some confusion as to whether it was the correct line, or perhaps an older version of the intended line... or perhaps the flagging was there for a different (non-Trails/Rec) purpose. Regardless, the pin-flags were not located, so we remained uncertain where to start digging.

What to do? With Russell out of the country, contacting him was not an option. The crew spent some more time hiking the new 10K segment, looking for other ribbon flagging or pin-flags; then, after some discussion, we decided to call it a day.

No photos were taken on the hike, though Dan Benton shared the attached photo from the Crest Road. The road crews seem to be making fast progress, and the new surface is very smooth. :)  There is still a lot of nice color on the mountain, especially lower down.

Today's volunteers were Dan Benton, Claudia Bergsohn, Jenny Blackmore, John Braly, Luis Cuadros, Bruce Hansche, Jim Houle, Bill Perkins, Cleve Sharp and Roland Stumpf.

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(Here's a bit more info, for those interested in reading on)

After we called it a day, half the volunteers hiked back to parking; the other half (Claudia, Cleve, Dan, Jenny, John) temporarily stashed their tools in order to explore, out of curiosity, one more possibility: In August, Cleve had discovered some cleared corridor extending southwestwards from the Osha Loop junction with the old 10K alignment. The team hiked to that junction, located that corridor, and followed it uphill towards the new 10K alignment. Some of the cleared corridor was ribbon-flagged; some was not. After a few minutes of hiking the corridor, what should appear but a line of pin flags. Following this line, it ended a good distance from the area we had spent our morning searching, and we would not have spotted it then; but the extracurricular hike did reveal that the ribbon line which petered out is in fact the intended location for the Osha Loop extension and junction.

Lesson for the day? Instead of usually requesting GPS coordinates from the Forest Service, always do!  At least it was a beautiful, cool day for a hike.