April 21-28, 2001
Gila Wilderness, New Mexico (by Raylene Welch)
Five volunteers left Austin at about 7AM on April 21 for the CTTT work trip to the Gila Wilderness in SW New Mexico. Along the way, we had lunch at a rest area, supper at the Cactus Cafe in Deming (great recommendation from Kevin!), and arrived at Sapillo campground around 8:30PM. After meeting ranger Tim Pohlman, we set up our tents for the night.
On Sunday, thinking it rained during the night, we woke up to everything coated with about an inch of snow. It was beautiful! After tossing a few snowballs & eating breakfast, we listened to Tim give instructions on the use of the area and how to build the trail to accommodate the various uses. We hiked about 2 hours to the site and worked for about three hours before heading back to camp. Tim informed us that a group of 9 Americorps volunteers would be joining us in a day or two.
Monday was a day of serious work with many large stumps to remove. Everyone was tired at the end of the day and ready for the Americorps group to join us!
On Tuesday, one of our members decided that she could not remain on the project because of serious foot pain so she was taken to the nearest bus station. The rest of the group continued working through Thursday.
This section of the Continental Divide Trail was built on top of mountain ridges but is being redone and moved to the side of these ridges, which means quite a few trees & rocks being removed and new tread being cut. With the help of the Americorp group, we completed about 1/2 mile of trail and dug out probably 50 large stumps. There remained perhaps another 100 yards of trail to be completed.
Friday was spent packing up camp and visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings before heading home.
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