Small Town News

Community work day on Legends Trail successful

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Approximately 35 energetic volunteers put in a collective total of at least 154 hours of work on the Legends of Superior Trail (LOST) project last weekend during Superior's Community Trail Work Day.

"We had a good group out here this morning," said volunteer Olga Lopez, Superior's vice mayor, who like most of the other volunteers was well covered against the elements with a coat and wearing thick work gloves and digging away at the future trail, which was marked with small red flags. "We've got some young kids here," she said. "They're really enjoying it, digging out these cactus and they're digging out these new holes and transplanting the cactus, so they're having a good time."

In fact a number of younger people were out and about and active with the work crews. Some of those spotted from Superior were Jose Lira, Cody Scholnick and Naomi-Bo Hing. The two boys talked about the trail and what it would be like when it was finished and explained why they were there, which simply put was "to help!"

Naomi-Bo Hing was clearing brush and cactus with her dad, who is the mayor of Superior. Mayor Michael Hing, like the young people, seemed to be enjoying the day. He commented on the favorable weather for the event. It was, he said, not a sunny day but not cold, perfect for being outdoors.

The work day, which was the third recent one on Superior's dream of building a trail system that will eventually access the Arizona Trail at the Hewitt Station Trailhead and community walking trails in the town. Working together with the Tonto National Forest Globe District, the Arizona Trail Association (ATA), Resolution Copper and representatives from a number of state agencies, the dream is unfolding into an active reality.

The project, over the years it has been discussed and planned, has been called the Queen Creek Trail. In recent years it was officially name the Legends of Superior Trail (LOST) or simply called "Legends."

Trail building started in earnest on Feb. 16, with Resolution employees and contractors doing a day of work on the 19*. Last Saturday, the 27th, was the community day. Participants met up at 7:30 a.m. at the Superior airport and hiked a short distance to the northwest where a section of the proposed trail had been flagged for work. Under the leadership of Arizona Trail Association volunteers, participants divided into groups and began to clear the trail for a short distance.

A second work day is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, April 10. For more information on that event and how you as a community member, trail enthusiast, lover of the great outdoors or local or regional business owner, contact Mila Lira at 520-827-0676.

The future work day, as Saturday did, will end at noon with an appreciation lunch at the U.S. 60 park. The ATA will have tools available but participants are asked to wear closed toe shoes and protective clothing. Participants should also bring gloves.

John Rendall of the Arizona Trail Association explained some of the uses of the tools the Superior volunteers were using. This included a kind of combing with a metal rake-like tool that etched out a path in alignment with the red flags that showed where the trail would run.

He said the group was building the "corridor" for the trail in the section where they were working. "This particular section is very easy as far as trail construction," he commented on the area in general that the Superior trail would go through. "Most of the time we're in rough country, very, very rugged rough country requiring skilled workers."

The full LOST trail will eventually link the water tank on Old U.S. 60 to the east and with the Arizona Trail on the west and will consist of urban trails through Superior via Main Street and U.S. 60. The trail will be constructed to accommodate foot traffic, horseback riders and folks on non motorized bicycles.

Laddie Cox of the Arizona Trail Association said that the Legends of Superior Trail when complete will be approximately six miles in length. "It will go through the historic trail that will pass through the old predecessor to Superior, Pinal City/Old Pinal City," he said.

Eventually he said the Globe Ranger District of the Tonto National Forest with archeologist Scott Wood will put interpretive signs at certain sites in the old city. The LOST will then be a historic trail.

"Now what the Arizona Trail Association is doing," he said, "is offering assistance and technical advice to build a trail because it'll then be an access trail for us from the town to the Arizona Trail."

The Arizona Trail, he said, runs from the international border of Mexico approximately 800 miles to the Utah Border.

(For videos of the community work day on the Legends of Superior Trail, visit www.copperarea.com.)



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