Grand Enchantment Trail

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