Margaret Alexander
Last fall I promised to check out the Chili Line Trail at the end of Buckman Road at the Rio Grande. A group of us did, but never found the trail. Instead we hiked south along the river on the Soda Springs Trail, a really spectacular route with views of the river from way above.
A note on the Chili Line Trail: the latest edition of the Sierra Club’s Day Hikes in the Santa Fe Area gives explicit directions to the the trail, but there are a confusing set of dirt roads and gates which led us astray. Another warning: we parked our cars on the river side of an open gate. Big mistake! When we returned a security guard had closed the gate and we were locked in until we figured out the gate’s mechanism.
This spring the volunteers of the Trails Alliance of Santa Fe are heading out to maintain and build area trails. For example, a trail from near the dog park to the La Tierra Trails is ready to hike and ride. Besides establishing the tread, volunteers cleared away bags of trash and debris. The La Tierra Torture mountain bike race is moving back to La Tierra so volunteers are working to get those trails in shape. The lack of rain and snow makes trail repair very much harder because the dirt can’t hold together.
The Santa Fe Conservation Trust is the guardian of Santa Fe’s trails and helps the Trails Alliance of Santa Fe organize the stewardship of our dirt trails.
Big thanks to