A Winter Update from Walter on the Buena

Update on USFS Approval of Trail System: We really believe that we are within 60 days of getting a Decision Letter, which is the final approval from the forest service to build out the Buena Vista per the STBVF/TRACKS trail proposal and being cleared to start posting signs. Some final edits are being made on the archeological study in the area, and those should be sent to the USFS office within the next week. At that point. the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the tribal governments will be notified and have a limited time to comment on the plan.

If you are interested and can help with trail building this spring, we will have a lot of it on our hands to do. Our first priorities will be putting up signage, building the beginner trails near the BV trailhead off of U.S. 60. The more hands we have, the quicker the work can go. If you are not already on the TRACKS trail crew and receive notice of trail work days, please contact Steve Dobbs @ tracks.steven@gmail.com and jason_moore_21@yahoo.com. You must be a TRACKS member to help with this work as TRACKS is the official trail maintenance organization contracted with the USFS. Once we have clearance, we expect work days to occur at the time TRACKS usually works on Mondays, but anticipate special weekend work sessions as well in order to include all the mountain bikers who want to help, but have a hard time doing so because of their jobs.

Late Fall/Winter Trail Maintenance: Late fall and winter have been pretty friendly for trail maintenance given the mild winter. With weather in the 50's and 60's the vast majority of the time, why not? Work has been performed on both lower and Upper "Man Enough," Wild Horses, Cheater, Petrified, Dome Rock, Uncle Tom's, "Hole-In-The-Rock", and Crotalis.

A few trail maintenance volunteers being supervised by "Wilma" as they work on Dome Rock on December 6, 2025

All of this work to existing trail has been designed to help improve drainage and address soil compaction issues in some areas of the trails. Hopefully, this puts us in good stead for the upcoming hiking/biking and trail building which we hope will come this spring.

Trail Numbers Assigned: STBVF and TRACKS submitted a trail naming and signage plan to the USFS last summer, and at this point we are close to gaining approval. Below is a map of the new trail system, including both the existing and trails to be built this coming spring/summer/fall.

The trail naming plan combined sections of trail that were formerly called a number of different things when they were social trails. Just as an example, the Buena Vista trail consists of what was formerly Laird's, Wild Horses, Grindstone, Trail Fairies, Uncle Tom's, Dome Rock, Juice Tree, lower Man Enough and Cheater, and in addition some brand new trail.. In many cases, the old trail names have been reused even though they describe something different than what that name might have described before. For example, El Cucuy and Flinstone have been combined as just "Flinstone." The idea was to simplify by reducing the number of trail names and the number of signs that we will need to post.

As a sign of real, tangible progress we are making, trail numbers and trail names have now been reserved by the USFS for the implementation of the plan:

1.) Buena Vista, Trail No. 637 (Large Loop in Red, denoted "BV")

2.) Rainbows, Trail No. 639 (Green Loop Near Trailhead, denoted "RN")

3.) Sunshine, Trail No. 642 (Purple next to Sunshine denoted "SS")

4.) Hole In The Rock, Trail No. 645 (Orange Loop on Right Side of Map)

5.) Bat Soup, Trail No. 658 (One-Way Downhill, Greenish-Blue within the Hole in the Rock Loop)

6.) Rattler, Trail No. 659 (One-Way Downhill Trail, formerly "Murder Hornet)

7.) Petrified, Trail No. 660 (Hot Pink Loop in Upper Left)

8.) Grindstone, Trail No. 644 (In Yellow)

9.) Differential, Trail No. 643 (Blue Trail within the BV Loop denoted "DF")

10.) Angry Bear, Trail No. 662 (Light Blue Trail, denoted "AB", formerly "Murder Hornet")

11.) Flintstone, Trail No. 661 (Navy Blue Trail in Upper Left, denoted "FL")

12.) Jackrabbit, Trail No. 664 (This is a tiny connector trail that will connect Buena Vista to Differential

at it's mid-point.

13.) Chihuahua Pines, Trail No. 638A (This will be newly constructed off Flinstone and wind down to the U.S. 60 underpass).

As you can see, we've come a long way already. 2026 is going to be the year it all comes together!

All the best! Walter.