Jemez Singletrack 2013

just noticed your sig line, Grub----you sold the XR400 & picked up a KTM300?? sweet!

Oh, I intend to hike it sometime soon. I've got too much history in that area to not check it out now. I may try to poach it from the top of the canyon. Easier (and shorter) hike that gets you to the historic stuff sooner. Just don't know how bad that area is f'd up right now either.

For history's sake, Bland in it's prime:


Porch of the Exchange Hotel on the far right that burned in the Los Conchas fire.


One of the earliest photos of Bland in 1894...still mostly a tent city but the beginnings of the Exchange Hotel (still single story at this point) on the right. We found the bird cage that is in this photo under the word "Hotel" in the barn behind the hotel in 1996. Got photos of it, but I'm sure it's lost now.

Very cool, we lost some stuff like that to early 20th century government land trades/grants. Still there, just takes a little more creativity to get to it. Shame to see yours lost to a fire after so many years.

I did sir, it still scares me

For years and years the SFNF miss used any funds sent to them for forest fire abatement. It was hard to visit places like the Black Hills NF in South Dakota and compare what that Forest Service was doing vs the SFNF. Now they are taking every opportunity to close out the public.
I say that it's time to write our congress men ask for a full accounting of the SFNF's spending. And it's time to ask congress to unfund the SFNF on the grounds that if no work is being done and no one is allowed in. Why do we need a huge office like the one in Santa fe that is fully funded and filled to the brim with managers.

You are not going without me, dude. Fat, sad, out of shape, I don't care, I'm going!

RIP Helen. You are missed.

I noticed a piece of 50" or less trail on the MVUM in the section on SFNF west of Cuba. Anyone know anything about it? May have to make a trip up there soon to check it out.

Hmm, sounds interesting. It could be part of the "Oh My God 100"
Desert Race. I have not been in that area for some time. A lot of the local people hang out in that area. Think they call it: Chiwilli road.

Maybe take a shot at it sometime this fall. I'll let you know.

Definately an interesting and amazing woman. Dearly missed.

Two things: (1) I want to go, (2) Background requirement on Helen

Helen Blount was the owner of the lower part of the ghost town of Bland. She had grown up there as a little girl in the thirties. Her dad worked there as a miner and later ran some small businesses in Bland and ran the post office until it closed in 1935. Helen moved off around WWII time as life got in the way (got married, had children, worked several jobs) and came back to Bland in the early 1980's after her husband had passed and the kids were all grown and gone and bought the lower part of the town site from her long time friend Effie Jenks who had been living in Bland most of her life. From 1983ish until she passed away in 2004, Helen lived in Bland and enjoyed a secluded, peaceful life in the ghost town with many friends and family members coming to visit on a regular basis. She was very soft spoken and somewhat frail looking, but was tough as nails and frequently carried a .357 or 44mag around on hikes around the old Exchange Hotel or in Bland Canyon. She absolutely loved animals of any kind and had many dogs and cats that she had acquired as strays, etc. which she took care of. I met Helen while researching history of the area in 1994 and she was a dear friend ever since. Myself and several other friends and riders (including Brewtus!) would frequently stop by the hotel and visit with her and have coffee or dinner in the old Exchange Hotel building (built in 1884 and still had all the original furnishings from that time and no modern amenities) and have even spent the night in the hotel a couple of times. She was always very inviting, friendly, knowledgeable of the town history and a joy to visit. She is missed dearly... The loss of the Hotel building as well as all the furniture, antiques and mining artifacts that were there plus all the other buildings in the old town site due to the 2011 fire was a huge loss of history.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=65648140

Very cool sir, thank you. I always enjoy a history lesson, especially when the teacher has ties to his subject

Oh man; what a loss. Thanks for the background.

The photo I posted of her back on post #29 was taken in the Hotel in what she called the parlor...the front meeting room of the hotel, which was essentially her living room. She frequently sat in that chair and read books next to the 100 year old wood burning stove on her side. The lamp above her head was fueled by kerosene as were all the lights in the hotel (no electricity). She still cooked on the old double oven wood burning stove from the 1890's and brought in well water from outside to cook/drink with. Had a two hole outhouse outside with a small attached room for a "shower" which consisted of a sponge bath with a bucket of water to rince with hung above the door with water heated on the cast iron stove in the hotel. She lived primitive but never complained.

I would have loved to have met her, good for you guys, I'm jealous.