Trails
& Terrain
|
Mileage
by Surface Type
|
| Foot
Trail |
400
|
56%
|
| 4WD
dirt |
135
|
18%
|
| 2WD
dirt |
85
|
11%
|
| X-country |
80
|
11%
|
| Paved |
30
|
4%
|
| Total
730 |
On any given
hiking day along the route, you can expect to encounter a variety
of conditions and surfaces underfoot. As mentioned elsewhere, the
G.E.T. consists of existing hiking trails, 2-track/4WD roads, improved
roads, and cross-country travel. The route makes use of these surfaces
according to their availability in the journey's grand scheme, with
an emphasis on providing as often as possible a wilderness experience,
with superlative scenery, interesting surroundings, a quiet and contemplative
ambience, and ample access to pristine camping opportunities as well
as water. Efficiency of travel between town stops is also a priority
in the G.E.T.'s routing, although places of particular interest have
sometimes merited a more circuitous routing.
Map of Surface
Types - Click to view full size
Trails
Hiking trail accounts
for approximately 400 of the G.E.T.'s 730 or so total miles. Some
trails or portions of trails are well used (typically by hikers or
equestrians) and/or regularly maintained. These are generally easy
to follow without referencing map or guidebook. Other trails receive
less visitation or infrequent trail crews, and may have occasional
or frequent brush growing on or over the path, eroded or unstable
tread, and/or occasional downed trees and limbs. These conditions
are most often encountered in designated Wilderness areas or other
remote portions of the route. Also, in areas affected by fire. Many
of the trails the G.E.T. uses fall in between the two extremes, or
vary in condition from place to place. Depending on the obviousness
of the trail's direction of travel, any impediments to travel may
require only due care or a brief walk-around, or else they may require
the use of map, compass, GPS, and/or the guidebook information to
determine how best to proceed. In a few brief cases, trail tread has
not yet been constructed (or has reverted to nature), but the intended
direction of travel is marked with rock cairns, flagging tape, and/or
tree blazes (bark cuts).
 |
| Opposite
extremes: Excellent trail in the Superstitions of Arizona (above);
brief stretch of trail damaged by wildfire in New Mexico (right) |
Grading
Standards
Most trails encountered
are reasonably well graded, often climbing and descending steeper
slopes via gentler switchbacks. Standards obviously vary from region
to region, just as with overall trail conditions. Since the route
makes passage over more than a dozen mountain ranges, total elevation
gain and loss is fairly significant (though not nearly so aggressive
as along the Appalachian Trail, for example). However, because maximum
elevations are fairly modest (below 11,000'), and since days of climbing
are often followed by days of relatively gentle terrain, overall strenuousness
of the route can perhaps best be described as moderate. (Elevation
profiles of the route suggest roughly 104,000' of accumulated elevation
gain over 730 miles. See overview
profile.)
2-Track
/ 4WD Roads
 |
| Quiet
2-track road in Arizona's Turtle Mtns |
These are the
most primitive of road surfaces encountered. Totaling about 135 miles
of the entire route, 2-track / 4WD roads are also the most common
type of road feature. The term "2-track" derives from a
frequent characteristic of such roads - a pair of tracks, or ruts
(grooves), with a raised and sometimes rocky or brushy area between
them. Four-wheel drive vehicles are the usual "maintainers"
here, although in many cases the road surfaces are too rough or steep
for most vehicles, if they're open to the motoring public at all.
For our purposes, 2-track and 4WD refer to any road surface too challenging
for 2 wheel drive vehicles such as passenger cars. These roads are
often quite enjoyable to walk on - narrow, rugged and interesting,
with nature close at hand - yet they also are mostly straightforward
and easy to follow, allowing for steady forward progress. In the vast
majority of cases, you'll have these roads to yourself and will not
encounter vehicles. (Weekends during fall hunting season can be an
exception in certain places.)
 |
|
Priest
Canyon Rd, Manzano Mtns, NM
|
Improved Roads
Any road maintained
to a standard that would permit passenger cars is here considered
to be "improved." These surfaces may be dirt or gravel (~85
miles of the route) or asphalt (30 miles). Often encountered in areas
away from public land, these roads sometimes serve as the legal rights
of way that lead the route through towns or between parcels of Forest
Service, BLM, or state land. As with 2-track roads, these improved
roads occur sporadically over the course of the route, so that any
given day of hiking might subject you to only a few such miles, if
any. Forward progress is well facilitated by such roads, and most
do not carry much vehicle traffic, so the walking is pleasant and
easy. You can also use such roaded portions of the route to help stay
on schedule, for example if a recent section of challenging singletrack
trail caused you to travel more slowly. (The GET topo maps and guide
explain in greater detail where each surface type begins and ends.)
Cross-country
Travel
Cross-country
travel accounts for approximately 80 miles of the suggested G.E.T.
route, and is generally of two forms: drainage course walking and
line-of-sight travel in open desert.
 |
| Cross-country
in Johnny Creek Canyon, AZ |
In the first type,
which occurs more commonly, the route follows along the bottom of
a dry creek bed or "wash" in order to link with road or
trail at either end. Sometimes the wash may in fact be a flowing creek,
such as in a steep-sided canyon environment, and in this case you
would normally travel the path of least resistance along the creek
bank, fording to the other side whenever necessary or convenient.
Examples of drainage
course walking include Putnam Wash (Segment 5), which is wide, dry,
sandy, and obvious; Aravaipa Canyon (Segment 7) - follow the creek
bank until the canyon wall forces you to ford, then follow the other
bank, etc.; and the Abo Canyon area (Segment 34), which is a network
of steep-sided sandstone arroyos that the route follows rather like
hallways, turning the "corner" as one ends at the intersection
with the next. Drainage walking can be interesting and adventurous,
often rugged and wet, but the route has been designed to make these
sections efficient and straightforward as well. Basic routefinding
ability, patience (expect a pace no faster than 1 mph on occasion),
and a willingness to pioneer are the only real prerequisites for this
type of travel. (Please note that cross-country travel along the G.E.T.
is not bushwhacking - fighting through tree limbs and
high brush in disorienting terrain - although the surfaces underfoot
can sometimes be quite rocky, sandy, wet, or overgrown.)
Line-of-sight
travel, aka "following a bearing," can sometimes be more
challenging than drainage walking because of the need to avoid obstacles
without veering away from your objective. However, the G.E.T. employs
such travel only rarely, and only in open terrain where the walking
is mostly easy and free of obstacles, and where a visual bearing is
easy to obtain. One example occurs in open desert east of New Mexico's
Black Range, (Segment 27) where the route leaves a dirt road (indicated
by flagging and GPS waypoint) and proceeds downhill on a bearing to
cross a wash, (GPS waypoint-marked location) then continues on to
join another road by a windmill (GPS waypoint). Several different
approaches to navigation are possible here. One is line of sight,
where you would simply hike downhill to join the obvious wash at a
random location in its canyon, then walk alongside the wash itself,
keeping a sharp eye out for the windmill, and finally leave the wash
on a bearing to the windmill. A more direct approach would be to follow
a compass bearing the entire way, as determined by map, possibly adjusting
your exact route here and there as dictated by the terrain. Still
a third way of navigating here is by GPS, walking from one waypoint
to the next, more or less emulating the non-linear but perhaps easier
route that the author actually walked. None of the G.E.T.'s few overland
excursions requires advanced routefinding ability, however it is recommended
that hikers have a good understanding of how to navigate by map (especially)
and compass, as well as GPS (as an additional technique, not a substitute).
 |
| Cross-country
near Dusty, NM |
