SWNSC Trails are still closed (Dec. 12, 2011)

Hi all,

I've received a lot of questions about the status of the trail closure. While we've been able to get to some of the last few work items and even pulled down some of the grooming equipment from the summer "storage garage," we don't quite have the official closure lifted just yet.

Lynn Bjorklund at the Espanola Ranger District has worked on getting the closure lifted as soon as is possible, but it is out of her hands at the moment and waiting on approval from all of the parties involved. It literally is a change of law, so it is not just a quick signature sort-of deal from what I understand.

That is the word as it stands at the moment. We might be able to do some shoveling and packing work with all of this new snow, but that's not really approved yet either, so we hold off for now...
Please be patient. It looks like we might end up with a pretty good season after all.

In the meantime, we are hoping that our shade fencing will be here VERY soon and will have another work party day to get it strung up through the burn area. If you had a chance to see the trails over this past week, you would have noticed that the burn area could stand to have a little extra shade, as it's completely sun-exposed now and will not hold up to sunny days for long without the shade fencing. Please consider helping with this project. It will make all the difference for a much better ski experience, and further, to help hold snow that will aid in overall recovery of the eco-system.

Thanks for your patience. As soon as I hear from the FS, I'll definitely get the update out and we'll go groom.

Also, we've been working with the Sandia Peak guys with getting some information out about their efforts. It really is a great place to ski and they get a lot of snow. The trails are pretty cool and worthy of checking out. It would be great if we could get them some help. If anyone wants to lend a hand, I can get you in touch with those guys. Perhaps we could revive the Sandia Peak xc ski race/tour. That would be fantastic and probably help them to generate more interest.

More to come on that...

Clay