All Hands On Deck! Trail Give-Back Weekend

BV Trail Work Sessions Saturday 9/5 and Monday 9/7: It's been a productive summer in the Buena Vista folks! We have our brand new trails, Rainbows and Sunshine. Differential has been re-routed and that project is done. Petrified was finished a few weeks ago. Most the the new trail signs have been posted and white diamonds have been put up everywhere. But we're not done!!!! We have two big projects to complete, and being as it is Labor Day weekend after all . . . let's celebrate it with some labor!

Part of the Flintsone Re-Route that started a few weeks ago. This is necessary to route what was old El Cucuy away from an archeological area.

We really need help this weekend if you come out. And no, we're not above begging! Help is needed! We are going to be working on Saturday 9/5 and Monday 9/7, meeting both mornings at 7:00 a.m. at the Buena Vista Trail trailhead, about three miles south of Show Low off of highway 60. If you can help one, or even both mornings, it would be so appreciated!

Both days Steve Dobbs is going to drive a load of TRACKS trail tools to the work staging area, which is going to be near what is now BV 26. That's near Old Scott Tank, at the bottom of what was previously Juice Tree and the beginning of the "Man Enough" climb for those more familiar with the old trail names. You can either (1) leave your car in the BV parking lot and give your backpack, water, and any personal tools you bring along to Steve to drive over and ride your bike to the worksite (recommended), or (2) You can follow Steve and drive to the work area. Warning on that though . . . you do need a high-clearance vehicle to do it, the roads are certain to have at least a couple of muddy spots, and parking at the staging area is somewhat limited.

What do you need to bring? Well, water for sure. Work gloves. Sunscreen. Pruning tools. Any other favorite personal trail tools you like to use (which Steve can drive to the work area). Snacks to keep your energy level up. Trail work is hard!!

These are the tasks we'll be working on:

Project 1, Saturday 9/5: We are working on the re-route on the old El Cucuy part of Flintstone. Most of the re-route is built, but it still needs some fine tuning and needs to be connected to Flintstone. The length of trail we have to build Saturday to make those connections isn't long in length. But, just like the rest that has been built so far, it is laden with river rock, many of them very large which will need extraction in order to make the trail suitable. In addition to making those connections . . . the whole length of old El Cucuy needs some serious help. The trail needs trimming, has become filled with rocks which need to be raked out and removed. We need drains cleaned out too. Should we just have too many people (not really possible) or we should get done too early, that's fine. Because we have another project we can get to work on:

Project 2, Monday 9/7: We will be roughing in the Chihuahua Pines Re-Route from Flinstone down to the U.S. 60 underpass. We have the route flagged really well, but we need to get brush cleared and at least a rough rake done so that the route is walkable. If we get to start doing some finish work that's great, but really the goal for the weekend is to get the route in shape for a final build.

So that's the plan. Please come out this weekend if at all possible, even if you can only help for a couple of hours. We are trying to finish the Buena project before the end of fall, so it is critical we get help for the final push we need to make!