Discussion: Orienteering near Los Alamos or Albuquerque

Hi,

I am considering moving to Albuquerque or Los Alamos. How is the orienteering / trail running in these areas?

There is a lot of wonderful terrain in the Jemez mountains just west of Los Alamos, and an hour and a half north of Albuquerque, but not much activity in the orienteering club. There seem to be one or two keen orienteers in Los Alamos, and one in Albuquerque just moved from Tuscon. One event a year perhaps, though I'm hoping to encourage a touch more in my twice yearly visits to Santa Fe.

In terms of trail running, Los Alamos has an enormous amount in the Jemez mountains, and Albuquerque has Sandia crest on the edge of town. Expect snowshoeing or skiing in the winter near Los Alamos (though trail running is probably possible some places east of town in the winter some of the time), and expect high heat in the summer in Albuquerque.

Thanks Jim! Exactly the sort of details I was looking for.

From an other AP thread:
https://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/m...

Bump for Una.

That works! Thank you Mr Wonderful. This thread was closed to me but in the meantime I reached nath by email.

New Mexico Orienteers still exists, albeit in a small way. We have a pile of O maps in amazing terrain but years of wildfires and subsequent repairs have changed so many trails and even trailheads that all our maps need updating before we can put beginners on them. So growing the club is a challenge.

World Orienteering Day is a great opportunity for us. In 2016 we made a brand new O map of the brand new and deliciously complex Los Alamos High School campus, and we had great fun using it during a summer camp at the nature center next door. LAHS is in the center of a mesas-and-canyons trail system (link) that has to be seen to be believed. And LAHS has a Navy JROTC program.

If you'd like me to do a couple days of map updates when I'm there in May or October, let me know.

JimBaker that would be much appreciated. Please email me your contact info and send me your travel dates. I can see about organizing some work parties.

Others interested are welcome to join us.

Sent

I'm currently swamped, but if I can help by processing lidar for you, please let me know. (I've never tried downloading any of the Caldera / Los Alamos lidar, but I did some of Oak Flats southeast of ABQ a few years ago. It was really bad lidar. Apparently a lot of NM lidar is on-the-way.

Cedarcreek thank you for the offer! I think we are set for lidar. We have GIS pros involved. The work is mostly field checking and computer cartography of stuff we can't get from lidar: newly placed or removed fences, small trails, gravel vs concrete or vs bare rock, and what kind of vegetation. Spines or no spines makes a huge difference. In some areas maintained trails are basically tunnels, the vegetation is so nasty.