On Wednesday, May 29, FOSM volunteers Dan Benton, Bob Lowder, Jim Levesque, Jerry Pekarek, Byron Garner, and Sam Beard had planned to continue thinning at the Cedro CFRP site south of the ranger station, but rain and dark clouds raised the possibility of very muddy conditions on the dirt roads. As a result, they decided to work at sites along the Crest Highway.

In the lower part of Capulin Picnic Area, they bucked a felled hazard tree into 16-inch lengths so that it could be collected as donation wood later. Dan and Byron felled a dead 10-inch fir considered to the a hazard near the lower restroom. Bob, Jim, Jerry, and Byron drove to the Crest area where they secured one of the newer picnic tables to a steel and concrete anchor with a USFS lock at the gate to Kiwanis Meadow Road. The former lock had been cut, and the table had been moved onto the pavement. Bob's team then removed fallen trees from the South Crest Trail. Bob will report this work in a separate email.

After searching the main Capulin Picnic Area, Dan and Sam felled one 10-inch dead fir on the lower side of the Snow Play Area road. They found no dead trees in the Crest area and at the 10K Trailhead. At Ellis TH, they found one tall dead tree about a tree-length from the red gate. At Dan's Loop, they found four large dead trees that are within a tree length of this former highway switchback. At Balsam Glade PA, they felled the last marked hazard tree, an 18-inch dead fir up the hill from the picnic shelter.

At the lower Balsam Glade PA parking area Dan chatted with two elderly couples from Europe who had rented two large Cruise America RVs in Denver and had just driven them up Las Huertas Canyon on Hwy 165 from Placitas. He assured them that not all state highways in New Mexico were like this one.