Written by Joseph Cofresi, Wild Stew Field Crew Leader.
It’s a beautiful time of year as spring is transitioning into summer. Trees continue to leaf out, wildflowers are popping off, and the Wild Stew Field Crew retreats into the mountains to avoid the rising temperatures of the Sonoran desert. Our past hitches have had us high in the Huachucas, the Chiricahuas, and the Catalinas; but this hitch our escape route headed us back high into the Gila Wilderness happily atop Hummingbird Saddle. Prior to our hitch, our partners at the Gila National Forest were assisted by the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps (RMYC) who brushed out a wider trail corridor and cleared downed logs off of the Whitewater Trail which descends out of Hummingbird Saddle and ultimately traverses Whitewater Canyon over 14 miles to the Catwalk National Recreation Trail just outside of Glenwood. We were there to pick up where they left off, improving the tread where they worked, and then clear and cut beyond where they stopped.
Birds were chirping, leaves were rustling. Down the trail we were hustling. Taking our sections, improving the tread. Lopping the brush, removing the dead. The dead I speak of are quaking aspens Lain over the trail ’cause that's what happens. After a wildfire and some years have passed This aspen forest is full of aspen snags. So crews cruise through to clear the trails ’Cause snags catch wind as if they're sails. They fall and crash to the ground beneath Awaiting the bite from the crosscut teeth. Good thing we're hungry and happy to eat Cause crosscutting logs is a special treat.
We widened and retreaded about 1.4 miles of trail for the first half of the hitch, finishing at the point where the RMYC had cleared to. We then switched gears and began brushing a corridor and crosscutting logs ourselves, through an especially dense section of deadfall. With the time we had, we were able to clear about 260 logs and brush another 0.52 miles further down trail. This was only the first hitch of three that we will be working on this trail and the connecting Redstone Trail this spring, and we have quite the work cut out ahead for us!
