Photos and article 

by Allanna Jackson 

The Buena Vista Trail was quite popular on a Friday afternoon in late October. Just after turning onto Rim Road FR 300, I had to move as far to the right as I could so another truck towing a one-horse trailer could leave. There were two cars, a jeep, and another horse trailer at the trailhead. The jeep’s front tire was being inflated with a battery-powered pump. While I unloaded Cinnamon and prepared for our ride, the horse trailer, one car, and the jeep left. When I turned on my GPS, it announced, “Low Battery.” I ignored it and clipped it onto my belt, anyway.

Cinnamon and I had the trail to ourselves as we set off. There was a puddle on the trail at marker Buena Vista one (BV1). Hurricane Priscilla dumped four inches of rain in three days on the White Mountains the previous weekend, filling the pond just before BV2. As we approached, I noticed a lady sitting on a log watching the pond. She turned and greeted us. I returned her greeting, and we continued down the trail.

Last time I rode this trail, we went left up the numbered diamonds. This time we went right, and immediately came upon marker BV36. I knew from reading the TRACKS newsletter that the Buena Vista Trail is undergoing a major revision after a Forest Service land swap.

The Gambel’s Oak were turning yellow and gold mixed with the green, and the manzanitas were still green. A few scattered wildflowers were in bloom among the green grasses. Between markers BV34 and BV32, tire tracks showed somebody had driven a full-size vehicle almost half a mile on the non-motorized trail. Why do some people use motorized machines on the non-motorized trails when we have hundreds of miles of Forest Service roads and motorized trails to drive on?

The trail climbs up a slope, then rounds the shoulder of a hill where one of the original turquoise markers still stands sentinel over part of the original route. Near BV32, the trail loops back in the direction it came from and descends into a small canyon. After marker BV31, the markers showed the yellow dots of a shortcut trail. Two new markers clearly labeled Buena Vista Trail, and an arrow made the next junction quite clear. Suddenly we were at marker BV3, with a few purple flags on either side of the trail. We hadn’t been out for an hour yet, so we continued to the turn where the trail makes a sharp left back toward marker BV2. We went right along the single-lane dirt road instead, looking for where the Buena Vista Trail crosses it.

The sandy road is nice for doing faster gaits, so I asked Cinnamon to speed up so she trotted. I checked her back to a foxtrot, but she dropped to a walk. I asked her to speed up again, and she trotted again, and this time indicated she wanted to lope, so I let her. We loped along on the right lead, then stopped. Cinnamon got a horse cookie. We walked a short distance then trotted into a left lead lope, which Cinnamon did more easily than usual, earning another cookie. Loping quickly brought us to the junction I was looking for near marker BV6.

We turned right onto the Buena Vista Trail and climbed up the switchbacks to the top of the hill. Runoff from the hurricane had eroded a small portion of the trail partway up the slope. Somebody had already slightly re-routed it and filled the eroded place with branches and rocks. My camera suddenly complained about a low battery. When I turned it off, the camera informed me its GPS would continue tracking. That’s why the battery was so low! I usually keep the camera’s tracking function off, but the switch had somehow been flipped on. Turning off the tracking conserved enough battery that I could get a few photos of the views from the top of the trail near BV5.

Cinnamon was quite cautious about the steep descent around and down the granite rocks. I heard the distinctive sound of metal against rock in front of us. As we rounded a left turn, Cinnamon alerted to a man in a bright orange shirt. TRACKS volunteer Jason Moore was repairing the trail. He greeted us cheerfully. Jason petted Cinnamon and asked who she was. I told him he might have read about her in Outdoors SW magazine. Indeed, he had. Cinnamon nosed around in the manzanitas and gnawed on a dead stick while we talked. Jason confirmed my observation that the trail numbering system for Buena Vista is all mixed up because of the changes they are making to the trail. He assured me that when the alternative route is approved, they will completely re-number the entire trail. I told him TRACKS has been doing a great job on the trail system all these years.

Cinnamon found a few bites of grass to snatch as we continued down the trail after meeting Jason. We found his bicycle, with its packs for carrying tools, parked beside the trail. After BV4, I barely had room to duck under a tree that was leaning across the trail against another tree. Two more switchbacks and we arrived back at BV3, where we turned right. Cinnamon knew we’d been here only 20 minutes earlier, so she wanted to turn left onto one of the unmarked bicycle routes. I liked her idea. We had gone only a few yards when we both spotted a bicyclist coming toward us around a turn. I reined Cinnamon off the trail to let him pass. The cyclist thanked me.

Cinnamon cheerfully followed the bicycle trail through its squiggles into the forest, occasionally looking toward the Buena Vista Trail as if confirming our direction. We met another bicyclist, so Cinnamon stepped off the trail and stood snacking on some grass while he passed. The bicycle trail merged back onto the Buena Vista Trail only 100 yards from the trailhead. At the kiosk, we met a couple with two dogs. We greeted each other and continued our separate directions.

The trailhead parking lot was busy again, with two other vehicles already parked. Back at my trailer, my GPS said we’d gone 5.99 miles, so why the complaint about low battery one hour and 38 minutes earlier? Another truck arrived as I was unsaddling Cinnamon. The driver promptly set off down the trail on foot. The couple with the dogs returned a few minutes later and departed. I groomed Cinnamon and offered her some water, which she didn’t want. I loaded her into the trailer and went home.

Since this article was written, TRACKS volunteers have been working more on the Buena Vista trail.