Trail conditions
Full blog post is here. Here’s the short version:
Santa Fe National Forest has been put under Stage 1 fire restrictions, effective until September 30th.
The “V” bridge on Trail 25 near Santa Barbara collapsed last year in October.
Campsites (except Big Tesuque) are still closed until May 1. Most Forest Roads in Carson are still closed until May 1.
From the Taos News article, Projected wildfire season defies description
Registrations
89 hikers registered to date.
You can register here. Apologies to the people who had issues with the form last time.
Map of registered hikers and SF2T members. Data as of April 3.
Registration raffle winner: Mr X. of Silver City, NM
I had said there would be a raffle every month for whoever registers. So yeah… there’s a winner of the raffle. I emailed him yesterday and haven’t heard back about if a) it’s okay to use his first name and last initial and b) which prize he’d like out of a list I sent over.
These were the prize options:
$50 gift certificates to Tourist (camping and hiking supply shop in Santa Fe), REI, or a restaurant in SF or Taos.
Free trail support/fresh food delivery at Ski Santa Fe, Panchuela, Santa Barbara Campground, Agua Piedra Campground
A free fresh food delivery waiting for you at the Tres Ritos resupply
Two extra copies of the 2nd edition of the guidebook
I’m including this so you get the idea of what the raffle prize might be. I want to keep it small and interesting only to people doing the SF2T so I don’t start getting fake registrations for people just looking for the raffle prize.
Rio Grande Trail Alignment Survey has closed - 70% of votes were for the western alignment
As you may know from prior emails or the website, this is the alignment choice I was hoping would win.
As part of my efforts to redirect the RGT, I spoke with several Commissioners. That was overall a very positive experience. It’s opened a few doors - I’ll talk about those later.
To all of you who submitted an opinion/completed the Alignment Survey, thank you. ❤️
Speak up for Chaco Canyon
Speaking of leaving comments… if you haven’t already, please speak up for Chaco Canyon. The BLM wants to drill right next to it. Chaco Canyon has been a sacred area for millennia. You can leave your comments here (or go to the BLM Project page and click the “Participate Now” button to get to that page. It is curiously hard to tell that you’re commenting on Chaco Canyon from the Chaco Canyon comment page…), and you can learn more about the situation here.
Volunteers needed for answering emails, accounting, and grant writing
If you are interested in helping with these things, even for a few hours a week or every other week, let me know. Thank you.
The campsite monitoring program is advancing, though slowly and quietly. Here’s the checklist we might use to evaluate campsites. You have comment permissions on that spreadsheet, so go ahead: Leave a comment.
We will be tabling at NM ESCAPE (Glorieta) and Love Your Watershed Day (Santa Fe). See the calendar on the SF2T website for details.
Here’s the project page for Love Your Watershed Day. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what the event might be like to volunteer at.
There’s a lot of other things going on, but they’re in development and I tend to not talk about things that are in development. One VERY BIG DEAL™ is a signature away from celebrating, but I’m not going to jinx it.
Happy Easter, Pam Neely
Founder and Creator of the Route, The Santa Fe to Taos Trail
P.S.: Guess what this is…
