7 rigs went out to celebrate National Public Lands Day - taking advantage of of our BLM play area at Gordy's Hill, outside Socorro, NM. This run fell during a two-week stretch of intense rains throughout the state and we were fortunate to catch a sunny day between storms.
We found standing water in washes that are normally dry, rocks exposed by sand that had washed away, and some rocks that may have been moved by water.
The plan for the day had been to run a fun 3-trail combo we love -> Hidden Valley, Bad Hair Day, and Doug's Dilemma. That did not happen, holy cow.
The wet conditions and trails being rearranged by the recent storms meant we took way longer to move through the first two trails, and never made it to the third.
We typically get a group through Hidden Valley in about 30 minutes; today took an hour and a half and some winching.
We normally clear Bad Hair Day in about 45 minutes or an hour; today I could barely recognize the trail and it took us three hours, quite a bit of winching, and saw some minor rig damage. Nellie usually only has to work hard on the final ledge to climb, but just getting to that ledge today gave her a workout, Lordy.
We didn't stop for lunch until 1:15, at which point the group concurred that Doug's Dilemma (our hardest trail of the day) was no longer in the plans. We took an extra long lunch and then wandered our way out to the Byway, stopping at the mine entrance and the rockhounding spot on Chupadero to look around.
A note on the winching: There were places where rigs may have been able to clear an obstacle or make a climb had we done trail modifications like significant rock stacking. We did not want to damage trails by doing this, nor cause damage by digging tires in with all the spinning happening in wet sand and mud. We also did not want to chance rigs breaking under excess strain. Due to the conditions of the terrain today, we opted for clean lines, good trail etiquette, and rig safety. A couple of folks without much winch experience got to level up their winch skills big time. :-)
The folks who came out to run did an incredible job working together - spotting one another, pulling winch lines, watching for safety concerns, troubleshooting rig damage, and keeping everyone's spirits up as we tackled a day filled with challenges. All in all, a great day with my NM4W crawlers!
Happy Trails,
:-)mary
