Rio Grande Trail Commission Gathering - Thursday September 17th 4-6pm

On Thursday September 17th the Rio Grande Trail Commission will be here in town, holding a gathering at Box Canyon Brewing Co from 4:00-6:00pm. Representatives from the Outdoor Recreation Division, which has funded recent work here, will also attend. 

This is a good opportunity to see the new alignment maps for the Rio Grande Trail, and to provide your input on desired trail and outdoor recreation development.

Please consider dropping in, checking out their plans, and letting them know what you want to see in improved outdoor recreation opportunities in Socorro County. Feel free to come have a pint and chat; this is a drop-in and leave-as-you-wish event. 

Recent Trails Activities

We've not been keeping up on the blog lately, but there's been quite a bit of activity since the Mesa Trail project in May. Here's a quick update on some recent volunteer projects with NMVFO: 

• A small team of volunteers cleared Deadhorse Trail 12 between Mesa Trail 13 and South Canyon Trail 14 in June. It's much easier to follow now and makes for a good loop hike: up Mesa, down Deadhorse, and then back on South Canyon to the road.
• Another small team of volunteers cleared the Socorro Valley Bosque Trail corridor last weekend.

As part of a Trails+ grant from the Outdoor Recreation Division, we're working with the USFS and City of Socorro on some significant improvements in the Magdalena Mountains:

• We contracted out archaeological surveys for 70 miles of existing and proposed trails in the Magdalena range. The contractor has finished their field work and is finalizing their reports. These missing surveys had been the main impediment to doing treadwork in the Maggies, and that's now a sorted issue.
• We have a crew with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps working on Mesa Trail this week for six days. They started on Wednesday. They'll be doing tread work starting from the top near the overlook and working their way down.
• We'll have a number of improvements at the Mesa Trailhead: new road and trail signs, picnic tables, gravel parking lot and boulder barriers. The project should wrap up by this fall. 

Thank you to everyone who's been pitching in on projects! These projects only happen because people keep volunteering their time and energy, and we can't thank you enough. We'll have another project in about a month focused on maintaining the rodeo grounds trails since we have the youth mountain bike race taking place there at the end of October (24th-25th).

Mesa Trail 13 - May 30th

In collaboration with our friends at NMVFO, we have planned a maintenance day for Mesa Trail #13 in the Magdalenas on Saturday, May 30th. 

The plan is to clear downed trees, clear sections of the corridor of overgrowth, and improve navigation on the upper loop. This project involves a pretty long hike (~9 miles) so we'll plan for a full workday, including a lunch break. 

This is the first step in a larger project: the Forest Service is improving the trailhead (new signs, picnic tables and rock barriers) later this year and we also have the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps scheduled to do tread/erosion repair this fall. The NM Outdoor Recreation Division has funded this through a Trails+ grant, and we should have a much nicer trail and trailhead for our combined efforts!

If you are willing to help out with this project, please sign up on the NMVFO webpage:

https://nmvfo.org/projects/mesa-trail-13-magdalena-rd/

Thank you for considering spending your time and energy on this project. 

Winter Bosque Replanting

We are working with our friends at the Save Our Bosque Taskforce, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District and the City of Socorro to organize replanting along the Socorro Valley Bosque Trail after the Otero Fire. 

The current plan is to harvest Rio Grande Cottonwood and Goodding's Willow tree saplings at the Bosque Del Apache in January 2025, planting them roughly a month later, after rooting. 

More details to follow on this project as the relevant plans and permits are reviewed and approved, but we're thankful for engaged partners who want to restore the Bosque.  Stay tuned!

Water Canyon Nature Trail

We completed our last planned project of the season last month, clearing the corridor and improving navigation on the Water Canyon Nature Trail near the Water Canyon Picnic Site. As with our other projects this year, this was a joint project with the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors. 

Thank you again to all our fantastic volunteers for stepping up to care for our public lands and trails!

2025 USFS Trail Projects

We've been remiss in posting on the blog lately, so just a little update on recent and upcoming projects in the Magdalena Ranger District. 

Working with our friends at NMVFO and the Cibola National Forest, we have held two volunteer workdays this summer focused on Six Mile Canyon Trail #14 and North Baldy Trail #8. A project is also planned for the Water Canyon Nature Trail on August 23rd. 

You can find some photos of the Six Mile Canyon project and North Baldy Trail projects on the NMVFO Flickr page. A big thank you to everyone who has come out for these projects! It's through volunteer engagement that we improve access to outdoor recreation and stewardship of our public lands. 

Here are a few shots showing trail corridor clearing on North Baldy Trail.

O2O Trail Construction Progress

Many thanks to the 26 volunteers (including our friends from NMFVO) who showed up last Saturday! We had another really successful volunteer trail building day, completing 0.5 miles of the new BLM O2O Trail. It's surprisingly quiet and scenic tucked up against the mesa edge and I think this is going to be a really nice loop option with the Blue Canyon Trail when we're done.

The next build day on the O2O Trail is scheduled for Saturday April 13th.

2024 Spring & Summer Projects

We're trying to set our volunteer trail day schedule a little in advance this year. We're also coordinating with our friends in the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors to host more joint projects. 

Here are the currently planned projects for the spring and early summer. We'll add to this list, but hope you'll consider marking these dates on your calendar and joining us for some fun.

• Saturday March 9: Work on the Box-Enterprise Trail Network, constructing the new O2O Trail west of Socorro. 
• Saturday April 13: More work on the Box-Enterprise Trail Network, hopefully finishing the O2O Trail. 
• Saturday June 15: Working on the popular Timber Peak Trail #70 in the Magdalena Mountains. We'll clear deadfall and remove overgrowth to improve this scenic hike.
• Sat-Sun July 13-14: Working on the 6-Mile Canyon Trail in the Magdalena Mountains. We'll clear deadfall and overgrowth to improve navigation on this long and scenic trail. We've reserved the group campsite at Water Canyon Campground for the weekend, so volunteers are welcome to camp out!

Please do consider volunteering. We've been a productive group these last two years thanks to strong participation from the community, and you can help us continue to improve outdoor recreation and access. If you'd like to help out, please contact us. 

O2O Trail Construction on Saturday March 9th!

We'll be working on building the new O2O Trail on Saturday March 9th with some help from our friends from the New Mexico Volunteers For the Outdoors. The O2O Trail is the first of the stacked-loop trails that connect off the existing Blue Canyon Trail.  The trail is named after the Ocean to Ocean Highway, the original name for Highway 60, which this trail parallels. 

If you're willing to volunteer to help us build this new trail please contact us. 

You can see the alignment of the new trail in the figure below (shown in red). The existing trails are shown in blue, the powerline right-of-way in purple, and the Highway 60 trailhead is denoted with a "P" symbol. The trail will form a 2.8 mile loop with the Blue Canyon trail from the trailhead.

2023 Recap

As we close out 2023, it's a good time to reflect on what we managed to achieve with our partners last year:

• With the BLM and Rocky Mountain Youth Corp we built the Descansos Trail and Dirt Wall Trail out at Box Canyon. We also started the Landavaso Trail System near Magdalena.
• We started working with the Forest Service and logged over 260 volunteer hours in the Magdalena Mountains, clearing over a hundred fallen trees and overgrowth. We also did some joint deadfall projects with the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors (NMVFO).
• With the City we built the Lasso Loop at the Rodeo Grounds and helped host two youth mountain bike races.
• We installed trail markers at the Rodeo Grounds and on the Socorro Valley Bosque Trail; the latter thanks to a donation from NMVFO. The City and BLM started to build trail map/information kiosks for the Rodeo Grounds and Box-Enterprise networks.
• And finally we did a number of smaller maintenance projects in the Quebradas, Box-Enterprise network, Socorro Single track, and on the Bosque trail.

I think that's a pretty impressive haul for our little volunteer group! Thank you for all you do to improve the quality of life for Socorro area residents and outdoor enthusiasts. Take a moment to pat yourself on the back, and then let's keep the momentum as we start the new year.

Descansos Trail construction:

Landavaso Trail construction:

Deadfall and overgrowth clearing in the Maggies:

Lasso Loop Lineup MTB race:

Happy Trails!

Socorro Valley Bosque Trail Work

It's the time of year to enjoy the Socorro Valley Bosque Trail, so a small group of us worked on trail cleanup, overgrowth clearing, and trail marker installation today. Extra thanks to our friends at NMVFO who donated the trail markers and stickers to improve navigation along the trail! 

The Socorro Valley Bosque Trail is about 3.25 miles long and passes through a few of the Riverine Parks. It's not pretty easy to follow, starting from Otero Park just east of Socorro. The river is flowing nicely and the leaves are still in full color in this southern part of the Bosque, so make sure to visit the trail and enjoy the fall colors while we still can!

The Lasso Loop Lineup is a Wrap!

Thank you to NMICL, the City of Socorro, and all the volunteers who helped pull off the Lasso Loop Lineup youth MTB race this weekend. We had 118 racers from middle school through high school and a lot of positive feedback (though we could have all done without the wind!) Thank you racers, coaches and parents for coming out! 

We're proud of our little part in it and happy to see that the race course held up to its first test. It was really rewarding to see these young athletes push their limits while demonstrating fair and generous behavior - especially the varsity girls who were neck and neck for four laps! There are always lessons learned with a new event, but we're calling this one a success and look forward to making the Rodeo Grounds Hoedown Throwdown on October 28-29 even better!

Landavaso Trail Progress

Here's a quick report from Mike Comiskey of the BLM Socorro Field office about the Landavaso Trail build day last Saturday:

Thank you everyone for the great turnout and hard work.  We had 13 hardworking volunteers that came up from the Socorro area, 2 all the way from Datil New Mexico and 14 from Magdalena for a total of 29 trailbuilders!  The lower loop of the trail is 98% complete due to the hard work on National Public Lands Day, with a couple small sections still in the rough cut stage.  The longer upper loop is completely rough cut so the entire trail is very walkable and easy to follow, but will require users to be carful and watch their footing on the rough cut sections.  Thank you everyone who participated and thank you to the great partners who contributed drinks, snacks, vouchers, and their valuable time. If there are any questions about the Landavaso trail, or any BLM trails in Socorro and Catron County contact the BLM Socorro Field Office, or BLM New Mexico webpage.  

Here's a link to some photos from the day. And here's the location of the trailhead if you'd like to check it out. 

Inaugural Youth MTB Race - Saturday Sept 30th!

It's on! We're hosting the Lasso Loop Lineup at the Socorro Rodeo Grounds & Sports Complex on Saturday September 30th! This will be the first of two youth mountain bike races hosted in Socorro this fall. We've had great support from the volunteer crew on trail construction for the race course, and now we need your help putting on the event. 

If you're willing to volunteer please sign up through the volunteer registration form. If you can't make the full day, then we hope to see you out to cheer the kids on and soak in some of the good vibes!

Landavaso Trail Project - Saturday Sept 23rd

Time to kick-off our next project! The BLM Socorro Field Office is organizing a volunteer build day to break ground on the Landavaso Trail System near Magdalena on Saturday September 23rd (National Public Lands Day)

This will be a nice little multi-use trail just north of Hwy 60 and the Magdalena airport, so easy to get to and in a quite pretty area. The plan is to work from 9am to 2pm. 

If you're willing to pitch in please contact us so we can get a rough headcount (though walk-up volunteers are certainly welcome). Hope to see many of you there!

North Baldy Trail 8 Cleared

Thanks to the crew of volunteers for clearing overgrowth and dead-fall on North Baldy Trail 8 this weekend!

This was a difficult project - Trail 8 is challenging logistically and a long hike no matter how you tackle it. However, it's also a central trail connecting North Fork, Copper Canyon, and Hop Canyon Trails, so having this work done makes a lot of hikes and bike rides in the area more fun. 

Thanks for stepping up folks! You can always find out where we've been putting our effort in the Magdalena Mountains by checking the Magdalena Trails Status Map. Anything green is sorted. 

As always, if you're interested in volunteering with us please contact us. 

Descansos Trail is Done!

With appreciation to the BLM and the Rocky Mountain Youth Corp team for finishing it, the Descansos Trail is now fully open. This is a scenic and interesting hike, or a fun, flowy and technical advanced trail on a mountain bike. 

The trail extends from the ridge below Gramont Peak north towards the Box and then east towards the Shrine near Highway 60, which now functions as a trailhead. Make it into a loop with the Black Canyon and Gramont Peak trails. 

The approach trail on the old road by the Shrine still needs some finish work but is useful, and the single track is done. We're in the process of uploading the trail to MTB Project, Trailforks and Hiking Project to make it easy to find. Share some photos if you check it out!

Hop Canyon trails 25 & 25A are clear!

With thanks to our friends at the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors, we held a joint trail maintenance day on Trails 25 and 25A heading out of Hop Canyon south of Magdalena, NM. 

One crew worked on clearing the deadfall on Trail 25, while the second crew worked on the overgrowth and a bit of deadfall on Trail 25A. I think in total we cleared 24 trees and brushed 5 miles of trail!

There are a few photos from the crew on TR25 at the NMVFO Flickr page if you're interested. And if you'd like to know if a trail has been worked on before your next hike or bike trip, check out our trail status map - any trails in green are good to go!

Magdalena Mountains Trail Conditions

We're working with the Magdalena Ranger District, Cibola National Forest trail folks, and our friends at NMVFO to improve the condition of the trails in the Magdalena Mountains. You can see the trails that have been recently scouted and/or cleared on our Trail Status Map. 

Bookmark it and check it before you go out for a hike or bike ride. As of early July, Mesa Trail 13, South Baldy Trail 11 and Copper Canyon Trail 10 are all in pretty good shape. Anything green on the map is resolved, yellow items are partially resolved, and black represents our "to do" list. 

We welcome trail reports too if you record a track and GPS coordinates for problem spots!

Go ride the Lasso Loop Trail!

We've been making great progress on the new trail at the Rodeo Grounds, now named the Lasso Loop. The full trail has been roughed in and cleaned up. What the trail needs the most now is moisture and compaction, so yesterday's rain and the forecast for next week are very welcome. Please feel encouraged to go ride, run or hike the trail - use will help the tread compact into a hard surface. 

The trail now has a segment on Strava and we're in the process of uploading it to all the mapping apps, starting with TrailForks. Go check it out!

The City will be supporting us with trail marker sign installation over the next few weeks which will make the route easier to navigate, and they're working on a trail-head kiosk too. We're looking forward to the inaugural youth mountain bike race this October!