Trail Contract starting on Guaje Ridge/Mitchell Trails

Note regarding upcoming trail work from Lynn Bjorklund of USFS: 

Thanks to SWNS Club, Volunteers, and Clay Moseley!

A contract trail crew will be starting work down Guaje Ridge Trail and north Mitchell trail this next week. There will be daily ATV traffic up and down Pipeline Road that is authorized as approved administrative access so that the contractor (Reineke trail construction) can get chain saws and trail equipment to the start of the trail off Pipeline road. There will be hand crews only on the actual trail, with no motorized equipment except a chain saw to clear downed trees and hazard trees. The Guaje Ridge/Mitchell Trails will be greatly improved soon, and all those locusts and aspen shoots removed off the trail.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made this possible, and especially the Southwest Nordic Ski Club who has partnered with the Forest Service to assist in the rehabilitation of all the fire affected trails in Los Alamos County. Under this agreement, there must be a 50% match of volunteer hours to utilize the federal funding for these contract crews. Clay Moseley waded through the maze of forms, RFPs, and contracting process to make this a reality amidst his own impossibly busy schedule.

 

The contractor will be working the trails that are more remote, such as Guaje Canyon and Caballo, for the next several years while Craig Martin leads local volunteers on the closer access trails.  The sign-in sheet for all these volunteer efforts explains that they are actually volunteering for the Southwest Nordic Ski Club to help meet the match to obtain the federal funding.  Over the next few years we will need something like 1300 volunteer hours to fully utilize these funds. All the upcoming fall work parties and winter grooming hours will count towards this goal.  

 

We are also planning to have Reieke do some additional work on the nordic ski course later in the fall to get the trails in better shape for this upcoming season.