Written by Sage Bradford, Wild Stew Field Crew Member.
This week, one of our Wild Stew Field Crews was back in the Gila Wilderness. We’ve been working the Crest and Holt–Apache trails located in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico for part of this spring and summer. This hitch marked our last trip to the Gila for the season. Located at 10,000 feet, the Holt–Apache trail is getting too cold for work. Luckily, we managed to get some good crosscutting in this hitch before winter truly set into the Mogollon Mountains.
On Wednesday, the crew drove to the Sandy Point trailhead and hiked the Crest Trail 4.75 miles into Hummingbird Saddle where we made camp for the night. The next morning, we hiked the remaining 4.5 miles to the Apache Cabin. At the historic cabin, we established a base camp for the remainder of hitch. From the cabin, it was a short walk to our worksite. We picked up where the previous crew left off two weeks ago, continuing to cut logs and clear the trail. The hitch was entirely crosscut logout of blowdown trees from the 2012 Whitewater-Baldy fire, along with a smattering of brushing: aspens, locusts and gooseberries were lopped to make room to crosscut and open up the trail corridor.
As the days flew by in a mix of sawdust and sweat, the crew traveled further down the Holt–Apache trail. The hillside we were working on grew steeper, and thus the blow downs more complex in their cuts. The crew show-downed against a series of severe tree binds. Luckily, with the pounding of many wedges, underbucks and occasionally, finishing the cut with a Katanaboy, we were able to persevere. With six crew members on the hitch, we were able to work as three groups of saw teams. We switched around saw teams throughout hitch, giving each crew member a chance to cut with one another. The atmosphere on Holt–Apache Trail felt collaborative and supportive. Each crew member sharing their levels of crosscut experience and creatively problem solving the most efficient way to get each blow down off the trail.
By the end of work, the crew had cut 201 logs along 0.4 miles of trail. After the last log was cut, we headed back to camp for dinner and one last amazing Gila sunset. As the golden aspens danced in the breeze and stars began to shine overhead, the crew discussed all the food we were looking forward to eating after hiking out of the backcountry. Between the chilly autumn weather and laborious exertion of crosscutting, we were all quite hungry by the end of hitch. We wished each other a good night and fell asleep with thoughts of pizza and burritos in our hearts.
On Tuesday morning we awoke to dark clouds, a dramatic sunrise and the howling of wind. The plan was to break down camp and hike the 9.25 miles back to the truck and trailhead. If we encountered any blow downs along the way, we would stop to cut them. We decided to push the full 9.25 miles back to the trailhead today rather than breaking up with the hike into two days because of the winter forecast saying that today marked the true start of winter weather. The days before had seen highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s, but Tuesday’s high was to be 40 with a low of 20. Worse, wind gusts were forecast to be 20–40 mph—particularly unnerving in a burn zone. Standing dead trees creaked ominously above us. We decided it was time to get to lower, less burnt elevations. As we began the hike out, we were hit with a blast of freezing hail. Luckily, the hiking and crosscutting kept us warm. As we dropped in elevation the weather let up a little. I was delighted to be able to peel off a couple layers of jackets.
We got back to the trailhead and truck in the late afternoon, windswept and hungry. We wished the Gila one last goodbye and drove away. We stopped at a gas station in the small town of Glenwood for a chaotic, but delicious dinner of hot dogs, nachos, chips, soda and donuts. To our hungry trail worker eyes, it seemed a beautiful display of food. That night we camped near Mule Creek, New Mexico.
Wednesday morning we awoke to frosty tent flys and the last stars disappearing into the dawn sky. We piled into the warmth of the truck and finished the drive back to Tucson. In Tucson, we performed maintenance on our hand saws, crosscuts and loppers. Then, the crew wished one another goodbye and dispersed. Until next week’s adventure that is!
