June 15-22, 2002
Continental Divide Trail, Gila Wilderness, NM - by Dave DeGroot
This recent trip was held from June 15th - 22nd. It was reduced by one day due to fire near the work area Thursday evening. All activities were conducted in the Black Range Mountains of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. Activities involved construction of a new section on the Continental Divide Trail in the vicinity of Diamond Peak.
Fourteen volunteers traveled from Austin and spent the night at Percha Dam State Park southwest of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Sunday, the group made its way through Winston, NM to the trailhead on the west side of the divide and backpacked 3 miles to the basecamp below Fisherman's Bluff. For the next four days, the group made a hike up roughly 500 feet plus two miles to the work site on the Continental Divide. Three persons suffered minor symptoms of altitude sickness from the work at 9000 ft. elevation but otherwise there were no problems.
The day after we arrived, our group was joined by members of the Youth Conservation Corps and a small USFS Trail Maintenance & Construction crew. Together, we finished 400 yards of trail and roughed-in another 200 yards. At the end of our efforts, Ranger John Groom stated he had never seen as much trail completed by a volunteer group in such a short time. We were all much pleased at the news!
As often reported in the news, the whole region is extremely dry and many fires were currently burning in other parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Therefore, when lightning strikes created three smoke plumes Thursday evening, the US Forest Service was quick to throw all available resources at the problem. That included Smoke-jumpers, the rangers that were working with us, and the horses that were scheduled to bring water up to our dry camp Friday morning. Consequently, we gave up our day off, made our way back to our vehicles, and headed back to Texas and Balmorhea State Park. There, we relaxed in the cool spring waters Friday and Saturday before returning to Austin Saturday evening.
Sunday, June 30, 2002
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