The Friends of the Sandia Mountains (FOSM) led a trail crew up to continue work on the Cienega/Armijo Trails Improvement Project (CATIP). The crew is concentrating on completing loops back to Faulty, Canoncito, and Armijo Trails to improve access to the trail network.
A crew of ten volunteers showed up for the trail session: Lorna Morrow, Jenny Blackmore, Byron Garner, Eric Russell, Phil Cromer, Jim Houle, Pat and Mike Madden, and Betsy and Bob Galloway.
The crew first completed a short (0.04 mile) reroute towards the top of the what will be Madera Locura to reroute a fall-line section onto the side hill. A few members hiked the short distance to the Faulty Trail connection and worked their way back, opening up the trail corridor, removing loose rock, and providing drain points. An encounter with a hiker's very unfriendly dog off-leash was the low point of that task. The crew then worked their way down to Section TC03 which will provide a sustainable bypass of another fall-line section of trail. Work here was slow because the corridor had not been cleared and there was a huge amount of ponderosa deadfall.
The hike in was just over 1.5 miles and mostly uphill. Luckily the temperatures were not too high for the hike in. Toward noon the crew was feeling the heat but there was a slight breeze, there was quite a bit of shade to work in, and humidity was low. Ok, it was still hot.
All pics in the attached by Betsy Galloway.
Bob Galloway
FOSM Project Leader