NORTHERN NEW MEXICO AND SOUTHWEST COLORADO TRAILS

In 1991, Yah-Tah-Hey-Si-Kess, Lodge 66 of the Order of the Arrow, Great Southwest Council, Boy Scouts of America undertook a trails program in 1991. The objective of this program was to

Promote hiking and backpacking in the Council
Provide Council-wide information about trails used by units within the Council
Recognize those Scouts and Scouters who participate in a wide-range outdoor program

Two trails series were implemented

Pecos Wilderness A series of trails in the Pecos Wilderness area of Northern New Mexico. Fourteen trails ranging in length from 13 to 47 mile long. This trails series was developed by Albuquerque Troop 285 in the early 1980's.

Veredas de las Montanas
(Trails of the Mountains) This series covers sixteen trails in the northern half of New Mexico and in southern Colorado. Some trails can be hiked by first year Scouts while others will require experienced backpackers.

HIKING/BACKPACKING RULES AND ETIQUETTE

When hiking and camping, all Scouts must live by the Outdoor Code -- be clean in your outdoor manners; be careful with fire; be considerate; and be conservation minded.

The Boy Scouts of America, the Order of the Arrow, and Lodge 66 stress low, minimum impact camping. This means you DO NOT trench tents, dig latrines, bury trash or start new fire pits. You SHOULD use cat-holes instead of latrines and burn and carry out ALL trash.

Obey the rules of the trail. They are:

Always register if there is a registration box at the trail head.
Use switch backs properly -- NEVER cut across switch backs.
Be kind to the countryside -- do not make new trails through environmentally fragile areas; do not harass or tease wildlife.
Treat other hikers with courtesy -- respect their campsite privacy; leave radios and tape players at home.
Give livestock the right-of-way.
Leave gates the way you found them -- open or closed.
Pickup litter -- both yours and other peoples.

25 YEARS LATER

The Lodge Trails Committee wrote and published a booklet for each series that was made available to Scout units. Patches and segments could be earned for each trail hiked. In addition to booklets, information on the trails could be obtained from a website. Initially hosted on my website, it was transferred to the Great Southwest Council for hosting and maintenace in 2002. The program has since been discontinued and the website taken down; the patches and segments are no longer available.

This is the original site with a few minor changes such as the opening paragraph on this page, removing old, inactive links, etc. The information is OVER 20 YEARS OLD and no attempt has been made to verify its current accuracy. If you should choose to use any of it, you do so at your own risk. Note: this is not a Boy Scouts of America website.

EXIT TRAILS

Last updated: April 2016

Pecos Wilderness	A series of trails in the Pecos Wilderness area of Northern New Mexico. Fourteen trails ranging in length from 13 to 47 mile long. This trails series was developed by Albuquerque Troop 285 in the early 1980's.
Veredas de las Montanas (Trails of the Mountains)	This series covers sixteen trails in the northern half of New Mexico and in southern Colorado. Some trails can be hiked by first year Scouts while others will require experienced backpackers.