Change of venue this week! Instead of working on the Cienega/Armijo Trails Improvement Project (CATIP), the Friends of the Sandia Mountains (FOSM) led a crew of volunteers up to help complete reroutes on the 10k North Trail. The trail upgrades on 10k North are part of the new Sandia Trails Improvement Project (STIP).  

The SRD seasonal trail crew has built 0.8 miles of reroutes on 10k North to eliminate some of the unsustainable sections and started obliterating the bypassed pieces of trail. On Thursday, the FOSM volunteers pitched in to complete the obliteration process and help open up the new trail corridor.  

A crew of fifteen volunteers showed up for the trail session: Jim Houle, Lorna Morrow, Eric Russell, Byron Garner, Cleve Sharp, Mark Grazier, Jeff Huser, Bruce Hansche, Roland Stumpf, Don Carnicom, Phil Cromer, Steve Roholt, Rav Nicholson, and Betsy and Bob Galloway. The crew was supervised by Russell Berman, Cibola National Forest and National Grasslands Resource Assistant, Trails.

Being able to work up on 10k North was a dramatic change for the FOSM trail crew. The approximately 3000 feet of elevation gain gave us cooler temperatures, deep shade, lush surroundings, damp soil, and wildflowers everywhere. And the change in venue was not the reason for the good turn-out: all the volunteers had signed up thinking they were going to work in the heat of the CATIP trail system. 

With a good group of volunteers and four USFS crew members, all the planned work was completed shortly after lunch. It will be a shock going back to working at lower elevations. 

All pics in the attachment by Betsy Galloway.

Bob Galloway
FOSM Project Leader