Junction 24 is back in business.
Five volunteers worked with the City Trail Volunteer Coordinator on Aug. 5 to address erosion issues in the Central Section of Dale Ball Trails, near the Cerros Colorados Rd. crossing, and to move tools and other trail work materials shared by SFCT, the Trails Alliance of Santa Fe, and the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society, to a new storage unit. A big thanks goes out to A-1 Self Storage for donating a great new, roomy and easily accessible storage unit for the trail work community. The Trail Volunteer Coordinator returned on Aug. 25 with another volunteer to finish replacing faded arrow signs.
The final step of re-routing this trail above the gully to the right involved “armoring” the bottom section where a small arroyo flows over the tread.
The trail work on Aug. 5 included an “unanticipated” but very effective re-route on the way to Junction 18 and some repairs to fill in chronic gullies, and prevent future gullies, on a popular section of trail known as the “luge,” between junctions 18 and 20. As we went, we also replaced faded and dented Dale Ball Trail arrow signs along Cerros Colorados Rd. and re-erected the long-time-down sign post for Junction 24.
We are happy to say that we are currently working with the City toward replacing all forty of the Dale Ball Trails junction signs later this year – and adding four new junction signs to reflect the new connections that have been made over the years. Most of the existing junction signs are faded or otherwise damaged, all are out of date, and the trail user community has made its voice loud and clear on this need!
Filling in this groove on “the luge” is only going to make a difference over time if our work at the top of this stretch serves to re-route future storm drainage down the deeper gully to the right.
Faded arrow plaques on a post that is completely hidden behind road-side chamisa plants.
Much better. Thanks, Steve!
