By Melissa Green
When a trail is in good condition, most people hike through an area not realizing how much work is put into making the trail and keeping it maintained. A trail in bad condition can delay you for hours, or longer, depending on how bad or how long the segment is.
CDTC partners with other volunteer trail organizations to help you enjoy your CDT experience. Here is a snapshot of what trail projects look like.
The trail project below took place in May 2021 on the Middle Fork Trail on the CDT alternate in the Gila Wilderness with Gila Back Country Horsemen, New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors and CDTC.
We all meet at the trailhead. Horse and mules pack in the backcountry kitchen, tools, and some of our gear. We backpack 4 miles to our base camp where we set up camp for the week.
No previous trail work experience is needed to volunteer on a trail project. All the trail maintenance techniques, skills, and safety training happens while on the trail project. Volunteers work at their own pace and take breaks whenever needed.
While each trail needs different improvements, the CDT alternate – Middle Fork Trail needed a little bit of everything. It had two decades of deferred maintenance and a catastrophic flood in 2013 that destroyed the trail. See the pictures below for a sense of what the trail work project looks like!
During the May trail project, CDT thru-hikers were all traveling through this area. So, we met many people each day who were directly benefiting from the trail work. These trails are also enjoyed by many other backpackers, horse packers, and other recreationists in the Gila Wilderness and National Forest.
Trail work accomplishments on the CDT alternate included extensive brushing and retreading, removing 135 logs, and building 30 cairns (trail markers) in just 6 days!
