TOWM! Chihuahua Pines Trail Work 10/5, Buena Ribbon Cutting 10/7

TOWM Weekend: Yep, it is finally here. Tour of the White Mountains weekend! If you've been training hard for the event now is your opportunity to shine! If you are volunteering to help support the event, thank you for your contribution! Without the help of our locals there's no way this event could come off!

Obviously, it has been a outrageously wet week, on top of soil that was already pretty saturated, and that may have an impact on the final routing for TOWM due to trail conditions. We'll see what happens.

Due to the TOWM, there will be no group ride this weekend!

Chihuahua Pines Work Begins Next Monday: The final chapter of the Buena project gets formally underway on Monday, October 5th. The TRACKS trail crew is going to be out there to begin the build. We need as much help with this as possible!!!!!! If you can take a morning off work to come help, we'd really appreciate it. We especially need some young muscle, as we'll be benching trail in, building bermed corners, and building at least a couple of crib walls. This is not the same as building Rainbows and Sunshine this spring, which although longer, were comparatively much easier projects. Bring your work gloves, hydration, some snacks and good spirits!

The plan is to meet in the parking lot just west of the Arby's in Show Low at 8:00 a.m. We are planning to stage our work from U.S. 60 at the tunnel that Chihuahua passes underneath. The main reason for this is that we anticipate the roads in the Buena to get to the area we need to work are going to be impassable for the trailer due to mud. On the west side of 60 there is a wide spot where we will park the TRACKS trailer. The parking area there is very limited, so we need to carpool and keep the number of vehicles we take down to that location small. We do have four consecutive dry days in the forecast starting Thursday, so that's on our side. We'll be doing a final reconnaissance on the work area Sunday to make sure working the trail is actually feasible on Monday. Watch for further announcements for changes.

Buena Vista Ribbon Cutting 10/7: Please remember to come to the Buena Vista ribbon-cutting event scheduled for October 7th from 11:30-1:30. The event takes place at the Old Ramada in Show Low City Park. This is the time to celebrate all we've accomplished this summer out in the Buena! We'll have some snacks, beverages, cake, etc, to enjoy, along with the all of the entities that came together to make this project possible. It's been a long summer and there's still a little work to do in order to finish it off before the snow flies, but it will be nice to make things official!

As you may have heard, Nick Lund, the former President of TRACKS passed away very recently, Nick was with us when this project began, and getting his support was key to getting us where we are today. It is sad that Nick isn't here to see this day, but Peggy Lund, Nick's wife, plans to be present and say a few words in his absence. We look forward to welcoming and hearing from her.

In case you haven't seen it yet, there is a really nice write-up in the White Mountain Independent about the project and our plans going forward: https://www.wmicentral.com/news/project-transforms-show-lows-buena-vista-trail-system/article_c1ddfbf0-0b37-463e-808f-51dd7b15054b.html