GET Topo Map Set CD v1.4 now available 14 July, 2008
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GET Topo CD v1.4
Ah, July: another month, another version of the GET topo map set CD… or so sometimes it may seem!
Yes, map set v1.4 – in fact its 5th incarnation since v1.0 debuted in 2006 – is now available. (We don’t revise because we want to, but because we have to. Change is progress in the decidedly not-for-profit trailblazing business.)
Find the new CD here:
http://simblissity.net/get-topo-cd.htm
Existing map set owners will note a special Add to Cart button intended just for them, which will charge precisely one penny (plus shipping) to the credit card of their choice, in exchange for all the love and promise in the world… or at least as much as the CD would hold. So if you’re thinking of heading out anytime soon – perhaps this fall, what with promising monsoon rains currently about – this virtually-free upgrade could be just the thing.
Don’t own a prior version of the map CD? That’s okay, we hope you’ll agree the purchase price isn’t too outrageous. And then, just like that, you’re in the free upgrade club.
PSA: I’ll be leaving on a little trip in about a week, returning in early August, so CD’s will ship both before and after but not during.
So what’s new this time?
+ The route keeps getting better. A number of noteworthy changes to the individual segment maps reflect these latest changes, especially in AZ. These include the eastbound descent from the Pinaleno Mountains toward the Gila Valley, which now uses Ash Creek Trail and also includes Cluff Ranch wildlife area. This is a vast improvement over the old route through the burn zone of Frye Creek, both in terms of navigability and scenery. (The old route here should now be considered “closed” for GET-related purposes.)
+ Other changes to the route layout reflected on the new maps include portions of the following areas: Superstition Wilderness (Segment 1), Picketpost Mountain to the Gila River (Seg 3), Aravaipa Wash (Seg 6), Santa Teresa Wilderness (Seg 8), Santa Teresa – Pinalenos connector (Seg 9), Pinaleno Mountains (Seg 10), Gila Valley South (Seg 11), Coronado Trail to the Blue River (Segs 15-16), Black Range / CDT (Segs 25-26), Rio Grande to US 60 (Seg 33), and Cedro – Otero area (Seg 37). Collectively, these changes are contributing to a “year 2008 GET” which is undoubtedly the strongest route layout ever, and with any luck, won’t require any major modification for the foreseeable future.
+ Improved / updated GPS waypoint data for some segments, much of it field-recorded, and reflecting both current and recent changes to the route.
+ GPS TRACKS for all segments and alternate routes of the GET – a new feature for version 1.4. Track files can be uploaded to GPS and used in addition to the guidebook and CD map printouts for navigating along the suggested route. Unlike individual spot waypoints, GPS tracks show the whole route line in addition to your location along it, in a sense “putting the hiker on the map.” Tracks are available in GPS eXchange format (gpx) for strong compatibility with most GPS receivers, and may be especially useful when exploring segments of the GET that lack corresponding guidebook chapters as of yet.
+ Updated overview maps of the trail: area maps, maps that show the route and elevation profiles between resupply points, and more. These are the same maps available for viewing on the website, only in high-resolution for printing.
+ New Lightscribe direct-disc labeling makes GET topo map set CD v1.4 a veritable feast for the senses, so visually appealing you may just decide to order an extra copy for display wherever fine artwork is appreciated in your home or office.
Next up…
Online guidebook edits for the existing 18 chapters (all of Arizona), bringing them up to date alongside the new map CD.
Water chart and town guide updates – ditto. All of this should take a couple of weeks at most, so anyone heading out this fall would probably do best to wait before printing any relevant materials.
Also…
Now online at the GET website ( www.grandenchantmenttrail.org ) – updated interactive Google Map as well as downloadable Google Earth file for 3D fun while checking out all the new stuff in GET land.
Now back to enjoying summer!
- Brett
new layout in the Cedro – Otero area 12 July, 2008
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Cedro meadow
Changes are afoot in Segment 37 of the GET, located just south of I-40 – east of Albuquerque, south of Tijeras. This segment passes through the extreme southernmost part of the Cibola National Forest, Sandia Ranger District. It’s located off of Sandia Crest itself, in the lower-elevation Manzanita Mountains, with 7700-foot Cedro Peak as its highest near-trail point, and scenic Otero Canyon en route. This is an intriguing area of dense pinyon-juniper woods interspersed with scenic wildflower meadows. An extensive network of hiking and riding trails thread the rolling terrain in this region, offering many potential route options that the GET might select from. As such, this segment (along with the northern part of Segment 36 to its south) continues to evolve. The current incarnation of the route here hasn’t been fully explored as of yet.
Here’s the beta:
Segment 37 – Cedro Peak
Maps:
http://simblissity.net/images/GET/cedro1.JPG
http://simblissity.net/images/GET/cedro2.JPG
GPX files (right click, save link as):
http://simblissity.net/gpx/seg37-cedro.gpx
http://simblissity.net/gpx/seg37-cedro.gpx
Anyone with an older version of the mapset will note that the Segment 37 has migrated westward, now spending more time on the west side of Highway 337, before crossing it at Cedro Creek, continuing over a height-of-land on Cedro Peak, then north to a rejoining of 337 near Tijeras. (Segment 38 then enters the Sandia Mountain Wilderness not long after the route crosses beneath I-40.)
The big advantages to this proposed routing over previous are:
1) It avoids 3 miles of high-grade roadwalking in the Tranquillo Pine residential community and along Oak Flat Road.
2) It’s also 3 miles shorter, purely by coincidence.
3) The new route follows the Cedro Creek Riparian Interpretive Trail for about a mile, with perennial water. (Thanks to Forest Service for this bit of useful if belated info.) This is a huge advantage over the old route, which had only one developed source at Oak Flat Campground, which was subject to being seasonally turned off.
4) Potentially, the new route will be less complex to follow, with fewer intersecting trails. The old route east and south of Cedro Peak featured trail junctions every mile or less it seemed, most of them signed, but still a lot of map consultation required to select the right one.
I intend to walk the proposed route this fall, but if anyone happens to be in the area this summer and is looking for an interesting and diverse section of GET to explore, this one might just be the ticket. Any feedback – either here on the forum or directly by email – would be greatly appreciated.
The maps linked above will be part of the upcoming version of the GET map CD, due out sometime later this month, we hope. Actual CD maps are high-resolution bitmap images and together cover the entire route of the GET from Phoenix to Albuquerque.
PS – A note about the “military withdrawal” shown on the maps around Cedro Canyon. According to the FS, this is in fact FS land – at least by every outward appearance – but has been “withdrawn” by the DOE and Kirtland Air Base in recent years, meaning no public access across portions of Otero Canyon at present. This has proven to be a contentious and emotional issue, as Otero is a much-enjoyed region for Albuquerque-area residents. The reason for the withdrawal concerns – of all things – unexploded ordnance! Apparently this area was once a bombing range, and hazards – perceived and/or real – still remain. Post-9/11 security-related paranoia may also have contributed to the desire by the feds to post the area off-limits to hikers and riders – to protect Kirtland Air Base itself with a buffer zone of sorts. But in any case, the military withdrawal at Otero DOES NOT AFFECT the new route of the GET, which uses trails that skirt around the closure area. Such is life on the outskirts of a large metropolitan area and “military town.” Frankly, I continue to be more amazed by how little influence the big ABQ actually holds over these nearby lands, quiet and pristine as they generally seem to remain.
- blisterfree
new vids now online 4 June, 2008
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New installments to the GET Video Galleries are now online.
http://www.simblissity.net/get_images.shtml
Click on the “video” thumbnails for galleries 1, 2, and 3 to find the new stuff, recorded this spring while walking from Phoenix to Safford. There’s also a few additional vids in galleries 4 and 5, recorded while I was exploring a few new route options with vehicle support beyond Safford.
It’s frankly hard to imagine, but these video clips, all told, now number a whopping 120. That’s somewhere beyond two hours worth of… I won’t call it entertainment. And just imagine splicing the lot of it into a single feature presentation: Phoenix to Albuquerque in low-resolution pans, jerky first-person action shots, and disembodied, droll narration. A Cannes festival winner this would not likely become!
But hopefully the short, one-to-two minute clips collectively offer a sense of what the route has to offer. It’s true that grainy, low-fidelity video such as this is many shades below a real-world sensory experience, but there’s just something about motion, sight and sound that together do reality greater justice than still images alone. Or so it seems to me.
- blisterfree
GET Topo Map Set CD v1.3 now available 20 December, 2007
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Maybe it’s wanderlust, but my fall hike this year found me deviating from the established route a bit. Or perhaps it’s a streak of comically inappropriate perfectionism to blame. In any case, as usual it seems, I returned from the trail this autumn with a laundry list of potential changes in store for the route. A few of these are considerable. Most are small. But it all adds up to a bunch of work, and progress, in the map and guide game, is generally slow business. Clearly I’m my own worst enemy here.
The good news is that the GET experience is improving, bit by bit, season after season. The route, as now laid out, is undoubtedly superior to what I and others have hiked in seasons past. It’s superior in that the route is simply more enjoyable for hiking, for example with less high-grade roadwalking, and fewer intrusions upon the sense of solitude. The route now avoids a direct confrontation with the mine at Morenci. And the San Francisco River, prone to flooding as it is, no longer is on the route at all.
There are changes in place that improve the scenery, sometimes dramatically. In the Mogollons, the outrageously cliff-bound South Fork of Whitewater Creek replaces the less surreal main fork as the route of choice. In other cases, a mile or two at a time have been tweaked to improve routefinding ability, for instance near Freeman Flat in the Gila Valley, where a straightforward stretch of cross-country travel seeks to avoid a confusing maze of 4WD roads on the edge of town.
The route is longer now, too. At 730 miles, it’s grown a good 15 miles this go-round. And not for nothing, either. In my estimation, the new Magdalena Ridge Observatory near South Baldy means this part of the range won’t ever again be much good for hikers. So the route now goes the long way around, via the West and East forks of Sawmill Canyon, along the way improving the prospects for finding water and solitude, while rejoining the scenic ridgeline beyond the zone of development. David Canyon, in the Manzanita Mountains, is new to the route as well. No longer is there a need to walk along paved Highway 337 near Ponderosa Pine, and this (more circuitous) canyon route is replete with wildflower meadows and lots of quiet.
And then, of course, there’s the Santa Teresa Wilderness segment, and the perennial attempts at marking a feasible route over (or around) Cottonwood Mountain. The latest maps may at last show something productive here. I won’t know for sure until my next hike.
Speaking of the latest maps, here’s what’s available:
GET Topo Map Set CD v1.3 – like the route itself, a considerable upgrade over previous versions, showing all of the recent changes to the route. Includes updated waypoint data and overview maps, as well. Existing map set owners may upgrade at no cost (see website for details), and I recommend anyone planning to hike this coming spring to upgrade, especially since the guidebook descriptions will continue to reflect the new maps while disregarding the old.
Also available on the website, newly updated:
GET Town Guide – up-to-date (as much as possible) for spring 2008. Note Morenci & Clifton, no longer directly on route.
Water Chart – also now available in PDF format for downloading and printing; many changes to the mileages on this chart, as well as info on “new” water sources, and a full update based on my fall 2007 observations
Paper Maplist – which overview maps to carry for each segment, all listed in one convenient place
Online overview maps – Washed, waxed, and ready to shine. Includes new Google Maps interface, where you can mouse around the trail at various zoom levels and with various base map data, including a new Terrain feature. The next best thing to the Google Earth file (which, btw, also updated).
Full-route elevation profile – The shape of things to come. Find it under Overview Maps.
Guidebook – The mileages and segment info on the TOC page is now current. Plenty of work remaining on the chapters, though. First things first – to recreate Chapters 14-16 based on the new route layout in this area, which is entirely different from the original. Look for these to come back online soon. I’ve also taken a sworn oath to publish at least some of New Mexico this winter – through the Gila, if not beyond.
What else needs doing? Ah yes, the Trek Planner. This is currently dispensing rogue advice from a few paragraphs, due to no more San Francisco River fords to contend with, and frankly who knows what else. Like life itself, it’s all connected, man. And the butterfly continues to flap its wings.
Season’s best!
- blisterfree
GET sequel: Santa Teresa Wilderness 25 November, 2007
Posted by blisterfree in notes from the field.1 comment so far
So what’s new in GET land?
After my hike from ABQ to Safford this fall I came back out with a rental car for some Targeted Recon. The Santa Teresa Wilderness passage (or lack thereof, as it were) has been nagging me since Day One. And my yearly-or-so attempts to make it work have always been complicated by the thru-hike nature of the journey: With a finite supply of food and a distant resupply point ahead, one can thrash around in one place only for so long. But now, with a vehicle back at the trailhead and a few days to kill, maybe I could actually make some headway.
The drive to Klondyke was long and dusty, but surprisingly easygoing, as Klondyke Road is well maintained. Just about anyone with four wheels and a little perseverance can reach Fourmile Campground, and the proof was waiting for me when I arrived after dark. In fact the campground was completely full, crammed with RV’s and diesel-engine pickups what with deer hunting season underway. Otherwise, the campground would typically be a ghost town. I parked well away from the hordes and made a squatter’s camp for the night.
Next morning, sometime between the early-bird hunters and all-day stragglers I managed to break free of camp, and made my way on foot up Klondyke Road toward the mountains. My goal was to follow the “main GET route” into the Santa Teresa Wilderness, down spectacular Holdout Canyon toward Black Rock, then try to find a way south over the range back to Klondyke Road. I wasn’t sure exactly how I would bomb out to that road, but anything workable that would link up with the next segment eastbound would surely leave me ecstatic.
Fifty feet south of where FR 94 leaves Klondyke Road an unmarked dirt 2-track heads east. I took it, ignoring a Private Property sign – the road passes through a small parcel deeded in-absentia to the mayor of Safford, who, I had it on good authority, allows public access. The 2-track eventually becomes a more established 4WD road and in a few miles reaches the Coronado National Forest boundary. Just beyond, Reef Tank Trail 68 leaves the road en route to, you guessed it, Reef Tank. I’d discovered this trail only last spring and had flagged it where helpful, but for the most part the trail is good, albeit little-used and brushy. I now added a bit more flagging and made a note to pack loppers on my next trip. In any case, Trail 68 certainly beats the original route (circa ‘05-’06) to Reef Tank, via FR 94 with its steep and crumbly grades. I even found a few pools of water in Laurel Canyon.
To my surprise Reef Tank was completely dry. Apparently this mid-elevation stock pond – now more a wildlife pond – is recharged mostly during the winter months. Just beyond, unsigned Trail 69 turns east and makes its way up a low ridge, then undulates unassumingly toward a meeting with Holdout Canyon. Here again, last spring’s flagging led the way, which I bolstered here and there anew. As usual, the sight of Holdout staggered and delighted, what with its incredible array of strange rock formations – domes, fins, hoodoos, and the like. Anyone who’s driven Interstate 10 over Texas Canyon Summit west of Willcox AZ has an idea of what’s in store here, only Holdout Canyon is on a much more impressive scale (and lacks a highway rest area).
Inspired, I paused to capture some grainy point-and-shoot video, seen here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3061245960038317822lBhqdD
I needed water, and had my doubts that Holdout Creek would be flowing so late in the season, especially with it being so dry and warm lately. Surprises, again. I was able to fill my bottles freely wherever the trail dabbled with the drainage, although the creek was clearly diminishing by the day. The trail in Holdout Canyon is as fun as the surrounding terrain, weaving unpredictably around rocky protrusions and over swales of bedrock in the company of a scattered pinyon forest. It’s one of those hikes where the trail is boss; it knows the way through the maze, and without it, you don’t. A quick hike it isn’t – in fact I’d managed to locate, cairn, and flag the entire trail only last spring – but then rushing through this scenery seems unnatural anyway. Nothing like following one’s own breadcrumbs, though, my pre-set cairns and flagging now keeping my mind elsewhere than on routefinding this time. Again, I made a mental note to pack loppers next spring.
Next morning I reached Black Rock Canyon and followed it east. Maps indicate a Trail 292 following the drainage here, but in fact it’s a cross-country hike and always has been. Still, knowing that I was “on trail” – with official sanction – somehow made the walking more compelling, which seems odd really. In any case I found bear tracks in the wash, in fact I followed them all the way out to Black Rock, along with those of someone traveling out-and-back on foot. I also found water here and there. Actually my sense now is that hikers are likely to find water around here most of the time, barring prolonged drought perhaps.
Black Rock is actually a series of rocks, not black but imposing – a sheer volcanic plug standing alone at the edge of the range. I walked beneath the impressive scene via the Black Rock Ranch property, a private inholding. The ranch owners were reachable beforehand by phone, and had explained their policy of allowing access to the surrounding public land, “but stay in the wash, not on the road.” I continued down Black Rock wash in search of Trail 66, a trail I’d tried and failed to locate during my first hike in ‘05. Strangely, I found it this time, and without much effort. Passing through a gate along the south bank just before Black Rock Canyon boxes up, I followed trail alongside Preacher Canyon, heartened to see horse plop and signs of water works serving the ranch. Apparently *someone* uses this trail on a regular basis, helping to keep it open. (And never mind the Wilderness designation, dear thirsty ranchers.)
Murphy’s Law of Neglected Trails soon cast its implacable shadow across the afternoon. “Whatever trail can be lost, will be lost, and not long after finding it.” I managed to follow the pack trail as far as Preacher Spring, before realizing a couple of things. For one, the trail ended there. And two, according to my map, Trail 66 doesn’t go to Preacher Spring. The spring was wet, at least, so I filled up then backtracked down the drainage. I was baffled, not just by the circumstances, but by how anyone else could have made it on to Kane Spring, farther along the actual Trail 66. In speaking with the folks at Black Rock Ranch I’d learned that another, neighboring rancher (”T Hinton” on the USGS quad) was on a hunting trip by horseback up to Kane Spring. I’d assumed the horse manure I’d been seeing was his, but how did he manage to proceed from “here” to “there”? The steep chaparral-cloaked hillsides offered no obvious clues – no clear evidence of a trail climbing away.
I returned to Preacher Canyon and poked around in vain for a diverging trail, then captured my frustration on tape: http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3047285590038317822sIISuT
If I’ve learned anything on my pioneering outings it’s the requirement to possess an unflinching, even inanely stubborn resolve in the pursuit of unattainable perfection. Can’t give up so easily, must try something else, keep pressing ahead. I made my way cross-country along a line which the trail *should* follow, hoping to intercept it farther along. From the canyon bottom I headed east, up an open slope toward the National Forest boundary. Where there’s a boundary line, there’s usually a fence, and there might be a gate where the trail meets that fence. Reaching the crest of a broad ridge I gained a vantage east down Beauchamp Canyon and toward Jackson Mountain, terrain I’d considered negotiating cross-country as part of a “North Santa Teresa Alternate” but now roundly dismissed as ludicrous given the rough topography before me. Gotta find that trail…
Lo and behold, there, not far ahead, was the fenceline I’d expected. And just beyond it, a paralleling trail, well used by horsepackers it appeared. Eureka! (These tiny moments of discovery, I must say, are now more exciting to me than having finally reached Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail a few years ago.) I hopped the fence and joined the trail southbound, cooing at its fine condition and well-engineered gradient as it slipped into a fold of Beauchamp Canyon and neared Kane Spring. I pressed on for a bit, then realized the late hour and thought better about continuing into uncharted terrain toward nightfall. Besides, my allotted time with the rental car would soon be running short. Rather than make passage across the Santa Teresa Wilderness, continuing on Trail 66 over Cottonwood Mountain and down to Sand Tank, I’d need to backtrack again, soothed for the time being at least by the probability of success upon my next exploration.
On the way back down to Black Rock Canyon I stayed with my newfound trail to see where it might lead. Would a good trail fade into nothing, or might it take me somewhere other than where I’d originally been searching? The answer, it turned out, was both. It seems Trail 66, as shown on the map, is in fact unused between Preacher Canyon and the FS boundary. This is why I couldn’t find it. The good trail I was now following back downhill didn’t go to Preacher Canyon at all, but directly to “T Hinton”’s ranch – the rancher’s personal pack trail into the Wilderness. If it was originally built by the Forest Service, then it was all but a private entity now, apparently maintained by – and used exclusively by the rancher (who, for the record, has all but permanently locked his gate on FR 94, preventing the public, and even the Feds, from accessing the Wilderness). This sort of unfair status-quo “Old West” exclusivity irks me to no end, and attempting to throw it off balance is part of the GET mission statement, not head-on but by sharing information that allows the public to legally access public land. (Of course, working with reasonable landowners for access across private land is fair game, too.)
In any case, maybe the above description would be useful to anyone thinking of trying the “main GET route” across the Santa Teresa Wilderness. GET Guidebook, Segment 8, details the Buford Hill Alternate Route, avoiding the Wilderness, which remains the best bet for hikers looking to make time and avoid potential hassles. Hopefully I’ll be able to add a more detailed account of the main route through the Wilderness once I’ve had a chance to explore it in full. For now, suffice it to say that what remains to be explored occurs from Kane Spring south along Trail 66 to its intersection with Trail 65. Beyond, Trail 66 is known to be followable all the way to its end near Sand Tank. If this route works – and I think there’s a good chance it will – then this is how the main GET route in Segment 8 will proceed.
Oh, and in the meantime, the latest GET topo map set shows the above route, with spot waypoints and maybe enough detail for some folks.
- blisterfree
images from the trail: autumn 2007 25 November, 2007
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On my hike this fall I found myself focused less on photography than on trying to record video from the trail. Looking things over here in the aftermath, though, I do seem to have at least some still images in the batch. Rather than post them into the existing web galleries, though, I thought I’d offer a slideshow dedicated solely to what’s here, which as it turns out is about five dozen images, from the Gila Wilderness west to Safford, with a few additional shots from the Santa Teresa Wilderness mini-expedition.
View the slideshow here:
http://simblissity.net/get/slideshow-07/slideshow-fall-20071.html
Grand Enchantment Trail video clips now online 25 November, 2007
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Video Galleries now available…
We’re pleased to introduce a new feature on the Grand Enchantment Trail website: Video Galleries.
http://www.simblissity.net/get_images.shtml
(and click on the thumbnails marked “Video” to view the galleries)
Over 90 minutes worth of streaming media is available for viewing, with 70+ individual video clips highlighting the GET hiking experience in all its remarkable diversity. Video (with sound, many clips with narration) recorded during blisterfree’s fall 2007 hike across New Mexico and Arizona, using a Canon Powershot A520 digital still camera.
Of course, watching the video isn’t the same as being there – far from it – but it’s certainly the most accurate representation of this trail’s scenery, ambience, and character now available to those who may be considering a long hike… or a long winter inside four walls!
Happy viewing,
blisterfree
Topo Map CD v1.2 released 6 September, 2007
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Attention current Topo Map Set owners, and autumn G.E.T. hikers-in-planning:
Grand Enchantment Trail Topo Map Set CD v1.2 is now available. This version replaces v1.1 as the latest and most accurate collection of topographic maps available for the route. The updated information represented on this CD-Rom corresponds with updates and changes to the online guidebook, and includes:
+ Clarification and correction of navigational information, based on my experiences along the route this spring, but especially upon those of other hikers who were out there this year. Thanks, folks!
+ Representations of alternate route possibilities, including new alternate routes (some tested, some not), as well as the “decommissioning” of alternates routes that haven’t worked or aren’t likely to make sense for most hikers. (E.g., the Black Rock Alternate in Segment 8 has been removed, and the as-yet-untested North Santa Teresa Alternate, same segment, is represented instead. The Buford Hill Alternate has been simplified. And in Segment 10, the Blue Jay Ridge Trail is now part of the FR 286 Alternate alignment, which most hikers will use.)
+ Improved GPS waypoint accuracy, as well as new waypoint data to correspond with changes in the route.
+ Small changes to cumulative mileage figures from the west terminus near Phoenix. These mileage changes are uniformly represented in the guidebook, town guide, and water chart, as well as overview maps.
Before anyone gets a headache, let me just point out that these changes – both in the v1.2 mapset and in the guide – are, for the most part, small. So if you’re not planning to spend time along the route this autumn, then you really don’t need the upgrade. If you are, and you currently own v1.1 or v1.0, then I would recommend making the upgrade, which is essentially free to do. Anyone who owns an existing map CD can go to http://simblissity.net/get-topo-cd.htm and click on Add to Cart where it says “Upgrade” to get the latest maps. The only other recommendation would be to do so before next Monday (9/10), as the online store will be closing down for a few weeks (just before I’m due to hit the trail, not so coincidentally!).
I’ve spent my pre-hike time this summer plugging away at this, rather than on expanding the guidebook. It seemed more important to make the existing route description and maps as accurate and in agreement as possible, before moving the narration, so to speak, farther ahead into New Mexico. So currently, as it has been, the guidebook ends with Segment 18, just over the NM line from AZ. From there, heading east, hikers will need to make due with the maps alone. What this means for westbound hikers this autumn is that they’ll be navigating by map, compass, GPS, and/or gut sense, for the first 400 or so miles. At that point, from Glenwood on, they’ll be able to use the guidebook, albeit with descriptions primarily written for the eastbound hiker. And yet, I suspect that autumn westbounders may still have it somewhat easier than springtime eastbounders, as the route in New Mexico is generally more straightforward than in Arizona; the maps alone should generally suffice; and the experience gained by the time they’ve entered Arizona will serve them well for the challenges ahead.
My fall hike will hopefully give me the chance to come away with the most up-to-date info possible for New Mexico and the remaining guidebook chapters, which will begin to appear later this fall and throughout the winter months. With any luck the whole enchilada will be ready by spring 2008, with the release of Map Set v2.0.
If you’ve been thinking about giving the Grand Enchantment Trail a try this autumn, the weather and water outlook are both looking favorable. The Southwest has seen plenty of moisture this monsoon season, with more on the way, and the water situation should be good throughout the fall. When summer is wet, autumn thru-hiking is undeniably easier than in spring – the weather is cooler, the sun less intense, the snowpack is long gone, and most water crossings are benign. Add in the aspens in their golden hues, fall wildflowers in the middle elevations, and coyotes yipping all through the long Sonoran November nights, and the memories are sure to be grand, indeed.
Happy trails,
- blisterfree
GET in vids 6 August, 2007
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For anyone interested, I’ve recently discovered my digital still camera’s video feature and am hoping to give it some use on my upcoming fall hike. The route is pretty well documented photographically now, but video would seem to be a whole new realm worth exploring. Likely I’ll return with a series of “vignettes” – 30-60 seconds a piece, small and grainy (heck, it’s a 7 oz point and shoot), but hopefully lending some sense of immediacy and realism beyond what’s often possible with still imagery.
In the meantime, here’s a few samples from Sandia Crest environs. (Note to self: man, that’s some grainy video. Next time maybe up the resolution just a wee tad.)
Sandia Crest:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3060340670038317822hjvJQr
Kiwanis Meadow:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3074061650038317822FeznpT
Rock squirrel:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/video/3043670380038317822AjSgBA
Happy trails,
- blisterfree
The Terrain Underfoot 3 August, 2007
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And the geospatial analysis, as they say, “goes on.”
It dawned on me recently that the route might benefit from another map. Or rather, that hikers might benefit from another map. Or, in the absence of any GET hikers here in early August, that gawking at maps might at least entertain the trail dreamers among us – encouraging us to keep on dreamin’ a little while longer.
But not just any old map would do, of course. So here’s something a little different:
http://simblissity.net/images/GET/get-by-surface-type.jpg
The GET follows a wide variety of “underfoot surfaces” on its 700+ mile journey – existing trails, dirt roads, pavement (very rarely), and cross-country terrain (mostly along drainage courses). As detailed on the website’s main page, approximately 400 miles of the route currently follow trails, with a majority of the rest located along primitive dirt roads or “2-tracks.” But while breaking out the mileages by surface type is useful to get a sense of what’s out there, numbers alone say nothing about the presentation – of what the proverbial thru-hiker will actually experience on a day-to-day basis, hiking eastbound or westbound.
And so, the map…
I’ve organized this under “Overview Maps” (see the Nav Box on the site). On the Overview Maps main page, click the “View More Maps” box to find “Surface Types of the GET.” (For visual clarity, be sure to maximize the size of the full-page map.)
Color-coding the various “surface types” really highlights the route’s personality, showing the big picture undecipherable from the guide text alone. The red line segments indicate where the route follows trails, and yellow where it uses primitive roads; together these surfaces comprise a majority of the hiking experience, as can readily be seen on the map. Of particular note is the extent of almost continuous trail walking in the Gila National Forest, the GET’s approximate mid-point and an eagerly anticipated section for most hikers. Trail tread is likewise more continuous near the route’s termini at PHX and ABQ, but is also regularly encountered throughout the entire route, if not every day (for most hikers) than often enough to quench the thirst, should that be necessary.
I suppose there aren’t yet enough of us to form any sort of consensus, but some GET hikers might agree that they red (trail), yellow (primitive dirt), and green (x-country) sections shown on the map all mostly allow for a quality hiking experience – away from vehicles most of the time, remote, scenic, and surrounded by wild nature. For example, note the “green stretches” west of Klondyke, AZ, which include the untrailed drainage walk along Aravaipa Creek’s wash and in Aravaipa Canyon itself. (Or the similarly green experience at the San Francisco and Blue river canyons near the AZ/NM border.) Also of note is the section from Magdalena to Mountainair, conspicuously absent of trail tread, but replete with the “greens and yellows” that promise a remote, wilderness-like experience through terrain unknown to most.
If, as the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, then it’s the diverse assemblage of parts that take the GET to another level for me. From end to end, the route is a veritable rainbow of hiking experiences – red to yellow, green, indigo, and back again – with each successive color on the map promising new adventures, challenges, rewards… memories. Along the way, as any worthwhile walk will allow, I’ve experienced the full spectrum of emotions out there. But among them, boredom and disinterest are not. Certainly I’ve been there before, elsewhere, but here, on the GET, the absence of monotony, of predictability, that comes with the ever-changing landscapes and terrain seems to maintain the interest level from day to day. What’s around the next corner? What new experience awaits? Even after all this time, I still find myself asking. And usually, glad for the answer that comes.
