LODGE 66 TRAILS PROGRAM

NOTE: My ISP has sold the domain name 'Roadrunner' to Warner Bros. and is changing their name to CYBER MESA. If you have bookmarked this site, please change it from roadrunner.com to cybermesa.com. The old name will work thru June 2000.

Yag-Tah-Hey-Si-Kess, Order of the Arrow Lodge 66, undertook a trails program in 1991 for the Great Southwest Council. The objective of this program is 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 have been implemented since that time. They are

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.

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.

We hope you have the opportunity to experience some of the trails in the Lodge 66 Trails program. We welcome comments and any suggestions for improving the program (mail to the Great Soutwest Council Office, 5841 Office Blvd., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109 or email swede@mail.cybermesa.com). We would also like to include some pictures of these trails. If you have some from that you would like to share, please let us know! HAPPY HIKING!