[Volunteers_fosm] Acequia Trail Extension Complete

[Young, Canyon - FS, NM]

Hey there, FOSM Volunteers,

As of last week, the extension of the Acequia Trail in Cienega Canyon is now complete and open to the public! We had a variety of folks involved with this one, including some help from a Talking Talons youth crew, the Albuquerque Mountain Bike Association, and USFS employees from the Albuquerque Service Center, and, as usual, a lot of help from the FOSM Thursday crew.

For those unfamiliar with this project: Formerly, the Acequia Trail paralleled the lower half of the Cienega Canyon access road, but ended at the beginning of the wheelchair-accessible, paved Cienega Canyon interpretive trail. This forced trail users to either use the interpretive path or dump out onto the road to connect with the Cienega Trail further up the canyon, neither of which was ideal. By having the trail cross the road and extending it up to connect with the Cienega Trail just above the Cienega Trailhead, this will keep trail users off the road and the interpretive path, allowing for increased capacity, decreased intra-user group conflict, and better overall traffic flow in one of the Sandia Ranger District's most heavily used developed recreation sites. I might also add that the upper part of the newly constructed trail extension meanders through a tunnel-like section of large maples and oaks that is extra shady and quite beautiful - I'd highly recommend it for your next outing.

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Another shoutout to the FOSM paint crew for adding a painted crosswalk on the Cienega access road where the Acequia Trail now crosses it, to aid in letting motorists know to be on the lookout for hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians about to cross!

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Many thanks to those of you who donated your time to this project - we appreciate your involvement in our long-term vision of building the Sandia Ranger District's trail system into something that can sustainably handle the heavy, multi-use recreational demands of the ever-growing Albuquerque metro area!




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Canyon Young
Trails and Wilderness Program Manager
US Forest Service
Sandia Ranger District
Cibola National Forest
11776 Hwy 337, Tijeras, NM 87059
505-546-7466
canyon.young at usda.gov






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