[Philmont] Rough Trails on Mt. Phillips

Love it Gregg!!!

I teach my young un's two sayings before going to the mountains...

"God did not make mountains flat."
"They are called the ROCKY MOUNTAINS for a reason."

Flat hikes are found in Oklahoma and Kansas.

Shane (from work)

---- Gregg Nuessly <runonall6@bellsouth.net> wrote:
And now for something completely different. Please give us MORE rough,
rocky trails!

Lets not be too quick to remove rocks from trails. In 2004 our conservation
project involved reworking a trail that was nearly flat as a pancake
undulating along a ridge. The first thing they asked us to do was to remove
the small, flat rocks with tiny plants growing in between on the trail that
were holding the trail together, despite no tree cover and lots of foot
traffic! ARGHHHH! No amount of discussion with the leaders could change
their minds on this issue. I hope to get back there someday to see how
badly the trail is probably now eroded. Around the corner they were putting
rocks into the trail to REDUCE EROSION and produce a stair-casing affect.
Same trail conservation leaders, very different messages. Remove the rocks,
smooth the trail over and you will likely end up with the eroded freeway up
Mt. Baldy from Baldy Town or the slippery, rutted trail on the upper western
face of Black Mountain. I say the trails up both sides of Mt. Phillips are
great. Leave them alone. IF there is any desire to change them, then keep
the rocks and the grade, but add a few switchbacks on the western approach
from Clear Creek Camp so that the water won¹t run straight down the trail in
the rain.

Repeat after me, ³rocks are good². They help stabilize the soil in the
trail and reduce erosion; stabilize footing; come in amazing shapes, colors
and patterns to give those of you who only look at the ground something more
interesting than dust to gaze at; and are much more interesting to hike
up/over/around than manicured trails with a constant 6% grade. No offense
to trail crews anywhere, particularly at Philmont, but give me a variable
pitch, rocky trail any day over a flat or constant grade, rutted out trail
that runs like a stream in the rain. Philmont trail crews do an awesome job
maintaining trails that frequently get overused and eroded by rains. Lets
not sanitize the place into a series of cake walks. Please!

Gregg Nuessly
Venturing Crew 2125

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Received on Thu Jun 28 06:58:58 2007