Portal, AZ - Rodeo, NM

This week six local hikers had the privilege of joining John Sumner’s trail crew in Rucker Canyon. If you think you are too old for trail work, the average age of the six hikers above is 77.5!

On Thursday, our regular hiking day, John already had eight trail workers in beautiful Rucker Canyon, as seen below. The creek here was totally blown out after Hurricane Odile plus some other floods. The canyon was really not passable for quite a few years. Recently Johnathan Patt and Wild Arizona did significant work on the Rucker Canyon Trail, re-establishing it, providing easily seen cairns and building an astonishing creek bypass in one place.  BUT — there were still approximately 100 downed trees crossing the trail along the creek, as well as along the switchbacks that climb the mountain outside of the canyon, eventually leading to the Price Canyon Trail. This group of astonishing sawyers cut them all. Yes, 100 trees! The sawyers came from Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, L.A. and Berkeley. Leave it to John’s charisma to assemble such a group.

One tree often requires two cuts so that a middle section can then be rolled off the trail. All work is done by hand. Downed middle sections are often rolled off the trail with people on the ground, using legs and feet to push, my favorite part of trail work. First some bark is cleared from the tree so that the cross saws can get a grip. The sawing is exhausting and these people are tough! 

Not all of us sawed. Some did tread work and brushing, which is clearing vegetation that is encroaching the trail. The only real breaks were at lunch and back in camp for dinner. Most of us were in our tents by 7:30 or so. The campers were pretty comfortable. Spread out over the old Rucker Campground, nine tents were at least 50 feet from each other and all shared a common kitchen area. 

This is an incredibly rewarding experience folks, and we thank those who travel so far to help us get more enjoyment from our spectacular Chiricahua Trails. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Next week we will meet at the Silver Peak Trailhead at 8:00 a.m. We don’t know what the weather will bring in the next few days so we plan an easy canyon hike, starting at the Snowshed trailhead and walking towards Herb Martyr. We’ll see where our loop takes us, depending upon who shows up and what conditions are like. Bring lunch, sun protection and check the weather forecast to see if something new has arrived. See you then.

Happy trails to all!

Report and Photos by Carol