azcentral.com Mare Czinar Paul Paonessa, the project manager for Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona, has a name for the pre-rehabilitated condition of the Highline Trail #31: SOLPOST. The sobriquet, which was coined by Woody Keen, former director of the Professional Trail Builders Association, is an acronym for “Scar on the Land Piece of S–t Trail.” [To read the rest of this […]
Read moreNovember 15, 2017 The Saddlebrooke Hiking Club hosted their regular third-Wednesday trail maintenance day with Ray Peale and Wendy Lotze leading teams clearing brush and repairing drains near the American Flag Trailhead. Ample summer rains afforded the thorny and prickly desert vegetation plenty of opportunity to grow into the trail corridor, and this team attacked it with vigor, making it […]
Read moreNovember 10-12, 2017 Over Veteran’s Day weekend, the Arizona Backpacking Club and other volunteers were supported by the M&F Jeepers in their maintenance of Passage 17a near Superior. The jeep club donates their time, gas and rubber to transport food, water and tools to the volunteers, who hiked the 9 trail miles in to basecamp. The jeep group also stocked […]
Read moreNovember 7, 2017 One of the Arizona Trail Association’s standing goals is to remove the trail from two-track roads where possible. HAZ maps (well, really any version of the topo maps, but I get mine on HAZ) revealed a low-hanging-fruit option — the old Reavis Trail south from Rogers Trough TH. This half-mile route appears on older topo maps and […]
Read moreNovember 5, 2017 An intimate crew of four worked to complete the 1.6 mile reroute started by the Volunteer Vacation team in October. Approximately ¼ mile of trail needed to be cleared in order to abandon the old trail which primarily followed an eroded forest road. Using a power trimmer, picks, hoes and sheer stubbornness the team scratched the trail […]
Read moreNovember 4, 2017 Volunteers joined Zach McDonald and Wendy Lotze on the Mormon Lake passage to repair tread on the climb out of Double Springs Campground. While it was still roasting down in the desert lands, the pines were cool and comfortable as the group worked on a half mile of trail between the campground and the Lakeview Trail junction. […]
Read moreThe Daily Courier Ted Johnson Our borderlands offer some of the best hiking anywhere with rugged canyons and challenging peaks. Miller Peak falls into the latter category. It rises to over 9,000 feet from a trailhead elevation of nearly 6,000 feet. My first attempt at the summit was in the spring of 1968. [To read the rest of this article, […]
Read moreOctober 21-22, 2017 The Trail Skills Institute Module 4 focuses upon trail layout and re-route design. Once again the class met in the scenic Canelo Hills outside of the gateway community of Patagonia to learn how to layout new trail and use re-routes to fix serious trail issues. Eight participants joined Matt Roberts, Mark Loseth and Zach McDonald to work […]
Read moreOctober 18, 2017 Summer rains bring overgrowth, especially catclaw bushes, on the Oracle Passage of the Arizona National Scenic Trail. Catclaw thorns draw blood when hikers get too close. Sixteen members of the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club mounted an assault on the extensive catclaw bushes threatening hikers on a portion of the Oracle Passage. The battle with the catclaw bushes is […]
Read moreSGB Media Granite Gear’s Grounds Keepers program has come to an end in its inaugural year, resulting in 17 hikers removing a total of 1,117.8 pounds of trash from the Pacific Crest Trail, Appalachian Trail, Pacific Northwest Trail, Arizona Trail, Colorado Trail, Florida Scenic Trail and Superior Hiking Trail. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreThe trail traverses long stretches of gently sloping volcanic boulder fields. Cairns mark the way along the low-use trail, which can become rather obscure from grassy overgrowth in the spring. Cairns are the same color as the surrounding rocks, so users must train their eyes to recognize them more by shape than color.
Read moreOctober 15, 2017 Summit Hut and the Tucson Backpackers held an event on the passage 12a, clearing brush from the trail near the Control Road parking lot. This portion of trail has been impacted by multiple fires over the last 15 years, and the regrowth of plants like oak, locust and ceanothus is aggressive. Volunteers armed with loppers, saws and […]
Read moreazcentral.com Roger Naylor This year, Oracle State Park came all the way back from the dead. No other park suffered like Oracle did during the bloodletting of the economic downturn. After the legislature swept $8.6 million from the Arizona State Parks budget during a special session in December 2009, 13 parks were slated for closure. [To read the rest of […]
Read moreCopperArea.com The Arizona Trail has a craft beer named in its honor. But great news for coffee drinkers. It now has its own blend of coffee. Sky Island Roasters located at 1575 W. American Avenue in Oracle introduced its newest blend a few months ago. They partnered with the Arizona Trail Association to produce the AZ Trail Blend, a blend […]
Read morePathways Across America As part of its commitment to create access to the outdoors for all, Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) has invested $1 million in organizations across the country that are creating opportunities to connect women and girls to nature. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreThe Herald Review With a passion for the outdoors, Rep. Martha McSally is launching an initiative to promote Arizona’s natural beauty and diverse landscape across the state. On Saturday, she led an entourage of hikers from the Coronado National Memorial parking down the Arizona Trail to its starting point at the Arizona/Mexico border, highlighting the trail while calling attention to […]
Read moreMarthMcSally.com U.S. Representative McSally (AZ-02) will become the first member of Congress to hike the 800-mile Arizona Trail, which spans from the U.S. – Mexico Border in Cochise County to Utah. Planning to hike it in segments in the months ahead, today she led members of Cochise County on a 3.6-mile kick off hike at the start of the Arizona […]
Read moreSeptember 30, 2017 Peace Surplus and the ATA teamed up to present an event on the Arizona Trail to celebrate National Public Lands Day near Mormon Lake. Twenty-two volunteers came out to give back to the public lands that they love on the Coconino National Forest. Segment steward Conrad Langley lead one team in rehabilitating a portion of the trail […]
Read moreSeptember 28-30, 2017 Given the access issues, the northern AZT passages receive their love in short, intense bursts. This year that included the annual steward event in June, the logging push on Passage 39 in July and now a three-day gate installation effort that resulted in six AZT super-gates on Passage 42. The Kaibab National Forest and Arizona Trail Association […]
Read moreThe Daily Sun Celebrate National Public Lands Day Saturday with free admission to national and state parks and monuments and a long list of volunteer opportunities across the region. National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreVerde Independent On September 23, 2017, Magdalena Romanska, owner of the Be Fit Fit in VOC, completed the 55km (34 mile) Flagstaff to Grand Canyon Stagecoach Line Race. On the race day, the foothills of Snowbowl (the starting point) experienced below-freezing temperatures. Over the course of the day, they morphed into a great, sunny, “just right temps” race day, with […]
Read moreSeptember 16-17, 2017 Melvin and Marlene Betani lead a group of 10 volunteers on a weekend of repair to the Lakeview Connector trail between the Lakeview Campground and the top of Anderson Mesa. Matt Roberts from ACE came by on Saturday to help find some solutions to erosion on the trail near the top where the grade is steepest and […]
Read moreThe Daily Sun A section of the Arizona Trail in Flagstaff recently benefited from the attention of volunteers. Natural Restorations, a non-profit conservation organization, hosted a cleanup event along the Arizona Trail and the areas surrounding the Arizona Trail behind Mary’s Cafe in Flagstaff on Sunday, Sept. 10. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreSeptember 10, 2017 Participants met under the scenic pines of the Mormon Lake passage for classroom and hands-on learning time for Modules 1&2 of the ATA Trail Skills Institute. 10 volunteers were joined by instructors Mark Loseth and Matt Roberts of ACE in learning the basics of trail corridor maintenance and drainage. The class covered terminology, slope recommendations and vegetation […]
Read moreSeptember 9, 2017 The REI “Force of Nature” event brought 23 female volunteers out to help address issues with drainage and erosion issues immediately north and south of the Apache Spring Trailhead. The crew built 9 wide drains and debermed the trail, repaired 3 switchback turns including adding drainage above, below, and on the inslope to protect the turns. They […]
Read moreSeptember 9, 2017 Many thanks to Josh Ellner, Holly Hovious, Rachel Dockendorf and Jennie Slusar for supporting our September work event south of the Grandview Fire Tower. Since this area was burned in a fire last year (about 2 miles of the Arizona Trail) we had many “leaner” and downed trees to remove. We were happy to see that in […]
Read moreThe Daily Sun Ask A Ranger Sabrina: When winter grips the high snowy north, hikers seeking warmer trails look to the desert climate of southern Arizona. My recommended hike features stunning views, Sonoran Desert flora and a lush riparian corridor along the Gila River Canyons Passage of the Arizona Trail. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
Read moreOctober 1-7, 2017 Fourteen volunteers traveled from all over the United States to volunteer to participate in the American Hiking Society and ATA’s Volunteer Vacation. The AHS program matches trail volunteers with a wide variety of trail volunteer opportunities throughout the US and beyond. Many of these volunteers had never visited Arizona before, and most of them had not even […]
Read moreSeptember 6, 2017 The USFS Globe Ranger District has long been a strong supporter of the AZT and the ATA. Through the cooperative effort between the District and the ATA, all AZT gates on the district are now the iconic super gates, the last one being, understandably, the most remote. Volunteers replaced the gate on Montana Mountain, located just south […]
Read moreThe Daily Sun The Arizona Trail Association’s Seeds of Stewardship program has announced the receipt of a grant from Recreational Equipment Inc. to launch Gear Girls, a girls-only club that uses mountain biking, trail work and snowsports to build confidence, outdoor competence, character and community in young women grades 4-8. [To read the rest of this article, click here.]
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