Black Range Project – Scenic Trail Reopened!

The Black Range Project is an effort by SNMTA to collaborate with the local and regional trail community to scout, maintain, and reopen trails in the Black Range of the Gila National Forest/Aldo Leopold Wilderness. The Black Range is where Aldo Leopold was inspired to create the idea of wilderness designation. The trails in this area have suffered from years of deferred maintenance and damage due to wildfires and erosion. On July 12-14, 2019, SNMTA held the first trail work weekend of this initiative on the Scenic Trail.

The idea began after the USFS attended a SNMTA meeting and asked for help in maintaining and designing trails in the Black Range District. Having the land manager come to us was exciting and motivating to make something happen. After years of maintaining our adopted section of the Continental Divide Trail we decided to start looking at the Black Range for trail opportunities in the summer when the low desert is too hot.

We reached out to a couple of people and soon realized the strong connection people have to this place along with enthusiasm to reopen the trails. After a couple of scouting trips, we soon realized the trails and terrain are very rugged and in much worse shape (sometimes non-existent) than we’d thought. A few trips along the Crest trail, Ladrone trail (pretty much gone), and Scenic Trail gave us a good idea of what we had in store and where to start.

We decided to start the Project on the Scenic Trail. This trail is 4.5 miles long and connects the small town of Kingston to Emory Pass and the Crest Trail. By Gila standards this trail was in pretty good shape (i.e. you can still find the trail). However, part of the trail was in burn area of the 2013 Silver Fire and had lots of blowdown and overgrowth from locust and scrub oak. This trail is just outside of the Wilderness boundary and popular with mountain bikers as well as hikers and equestrians. Based on the decent condition of the trail, access for all non-motorized users, connection to the local community and spectacular views, we knew this was the trail to start our project.

Word about the project spread quickly and we soon had people from the Silver City Backcountry Horsemen (BCH), Heart of the Gila, Furman University’s Wild Semester in Hermosa, and trail users from Las Cruces to Silver City interested in helping out. SNMTA wrote and received a Boots on the Ground grant from the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance to purchase some new tools and cover lodging and food expenses for the trail work weekend. Local businesses, the Black Range Lodge and Black Range Vineyards, helped us out with very nice accommodations and delicious smoked brisket. Check out these places and say hello to Catherine, Brian, and Nicky if you’re ever in the Kingston and Hillsboro area.

With this kind of amazing support, the Black Range Project’s first trail work weekend on the Scenic Trail was set up to be a huge success and it was! New friendships and ideas were made that I think will lead to great things on the Gila trails and trail community. A summary: 18 individual volunteers over 3 days, 80 blowdowns cleared by BCH, brushed and retreaded most of the upper 2 miles of trail, scouted the whole 4.5 miles of trail. Overall, the trail is open all the way through and should be easy to follow. Get out there and check out this amazing trail and let us know what you think!

Thank you to all the volunteers and trail community that made a very successful weekend! We enjoyed meeting and visiting with you all. I think we all agreed it was a great time and very successful work. We will be heading back up to the Scenic Trail to finish maintenance later this summer. Contact SNMTA if you are interested. There will be some opportunities for more trail work with Heart of the Gila and Furman University’s group coming up soon. We’ll post these on our calendars and newsletter.