This is perhaps the first time the Arizona Trailblazers have spent a hiking day doing trail work, but it will not be our last. We arranged with the Arizona Trail Association to help with the realignment of a portion of the Happy Jack Passage east of Lake Mary Road (aka Coconino County Road 3). The trail had been rough cut earlier by another group, and our task was to refine it and remove some large oak limbs that had crashed down across the trail.

We met John, a trail steward for AZT, at the turnoff from Lake Mary Road to FR 294 about 11 miles north of SR 87. Carol, another volunteer, also met us there. We arrive right at the designated time of 8:30 AM, on a partly cloudy day with temperature in the high 40s. Unfortunately, one of our cars missed the turn off from SR 87 to Lake Mary Road, so we waited about 25 minutes for them to arrive. Cell phone service was not available.

The 11 Trailblazers followed the AZT truck and trailer about four miles east on FR 294 to Bargaman Park. The newly realigned trail is not marked yet and not open to hiking. That will not occur until late next spring or early summer.

All the photos in this report are by Quy. Thanks to Michelle, Joe and Dave for driving.

After the mandatory safety meeting and passing out hard hats and tools, we took the group photo and got under way about 9:30. We hiked maybe a half mile before we encountered our first work sites. Cows grazing in the area had found the trail and sank their hooves into the muddy trail. We put small rocks in the depressions and filled in with mud. The wet conditions made the job harder than usual.

The group spread out along the trail and tackled a number of chores such as removing large rocks in the trail and back filling with smaller rocks and wet dirt. We removed a couple of large oak limbs that had broken off and fallen across the trail. Also we had to saw some of the limbs from the trees and to reduce the size of the branch so we could move it.

We slightly realigned the trail in a few places to get it away from trees and lower branches so that equestrians and bikers can use the trail and not be beheaded. We dug some drainage outlets to get water off the trail.