TRAX reports trail expansions, reroutes and pending Forest Service approvals

Steve Dobbs, president of TRAX, updated the Pinetop Lakeside Town Council on several trail projects and volunteer activities, reporting nearly 700 TRAX members and thousands of volunteer hours supporting local trails.

Dobbs said TRAX's trail crew contributed about "3,200" hours maintaining the trail system in 2024 and that volunteers logged "nearly 9000 volunteer hours." He described the new Lumberjack Trail, a 3.25-mile addition that forms a 5.5-mile loop with the Blue Ridge Trail and is marked with quarter-mile emergency reference markers, and two short connectors built near the Mount Meadow Recreation Complex.

On routes requiring federal review, Dobbs said the Chipmunk Connector reroute (about 2.25 miles) has Eastern Arizona Trails Collaborative approval and is awaiting Forest Service service review. He said the Buena Vista trail system is in the final stage of Forest Service approval after some mileage was lost to a private land transfer and that new trails and scenic viewpoints were added.

Dobbs also described the Show Low Big Loop work (about 20 miles total when combined with city efforts), an erosion-prone section called Collarbone Drop for which TRAX has mapped a quarter-mile reroute, and a redesign of Los Caballos that increased mileage to 21.7 miles and added a second trailhead with multiple shorter loop options. Dobbs said "it's gonna take 253 hundred thousand dollars" to move one of the large projects forward and emphasized the multi-stage process: design, Forest Service approval, then fundraising.

Council members thanked Dobbs for TRAX's volunteer contributions; no formal council action was taken on the presentation.