2008 TRAIL MAINTENANCE HOURS

All trail maintenance hours need to be reported to Jim Reynolds at retiredjim@gmail.com.  This includes Georgia and North Carolina trails.  Please email Jim with the hours, including travel time, and in what state the maintenance was done.

MOUNTAIN HIGH HIKERS TRAIL MAINTENANCE HOURS AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2008 

1.        Jan 28               The class at Vogel was 3 hours of lecture and the rest practical in the Park; mostly Bear Hair Trail

2.         Feb 8                Chunky Gal; mainly trail clearing especially numerous blow downs and overgrown areas of 5.9 miles

3.         Feb 15 & 16        Miller Trek: trail clearing he found an uprooted tree that has fallen right across the trail. It is over 1 foot in diameter and folks need to go around it which means going off the trail to do that. The location of the downed tree is on the north side of the trail with the orange blazes between where the blue blazed trail branches off and the green blazed trail

4.         Monthly             Helton Creek beer bottles and cans with some paper trash maintained 2x a month for 3 hours

5.         Mar 18              Yellow Mt Trail, The Shope Gap Trail and The Millhouse Creek Trail, all in the Coopers Creek area .  All of these trails are clear and in good condition.  We followed the Yellow Mt trail from the campground to the top of Yellow Mt but did not go down the back side to Addis Gap. (next time)  The only item on the Yellow Mt Trail is a fallen tree, about 1 foot in diameter, which is hanging 5 feet above the trail. The tree is located about 100 ft north of the intersection of the Coopers Creek connector trail with the Yellow Mt trail.

6.         Maintenance work shop

7.         Feb 7                Review proposed work sites at Chunky Gal

8.         Mar 20              High Shoals Clearing the trail of water, created several run offs and cleared other areas to facilitate water drainage; racked out leaves, minor tree lopping, and some work to cut a very large tree (David) until he got the chain saw caught in a squeeze.

9.         Mar 24              Chunky Gal work done.

10.       April 8             Chunky Gal and torn out two sets of decrepit stairs and built two new sets from scratch

11.       April 17            Arkaquah Trail—minor work trimming brush and lopping branches; really this trail was not bad at all.

12.       April 22            Coordination with USFS on incentive awards

13.       April 20        Wagon Train Trail—from YHC to the second gate inside the wilderness area and back.  Cleared three sections with several piled-up blow downs.  Not able to cut the big trunks but cut branches in order to make the areas passable.

14.       April 22            Arkaquah Trail—Cut all big blow downs.  Largest was 28”.

15.       April 25        Fires Creek Trail—Light clearing to determine work that will need to be done.

16.       May 1             Fires Creek Trail—Remarking the trail and sawing fallen trees/branches.

17.       May 7             Fires Creek Trail (Leather Wood Falls Loop)—trail clearing.

18        May 7             USFS—gather some equipment

19.       May 14        High Shoals—trail clearing.

20.       May 15        Wagon Train Trail—clearing the trails of large logs and rerouting the trail in three sections to facilitate water run off.

21        May 20        Desoto Falls—trail clearing

22        May 22        Hiker Transportation to Brasstown-GA—cancelled.

23        May 22        Fires Creek Trail-NC—clearing the trail

24        May 26            Wagon Train Trail-GA—removed fallen branches, opened clogged water run-offs cut 6 blow downs; sent areas to be evaluated to USFS for determination.

25        May 28            Chunky Gal-NC—trail clearing, clarifying route, sawing limbs and major weed whacking and brush clearing.

26        June 5             Chunky Gal from Perry Gap to Tusquittee Gap-NC—weedwhacking, trail clearing, sawing down limbs, etc.

27        June 7             Trackrock Road petroglyphs-GA—built a retaining wall

28        June 9             Arkaquah Trail-GA—cutting back of vegetation from Trackrock Gap to Buzzard Roost and back.

29        June 10            Coordination with Tusquittee Ranger District-NC and picking up equipment.

30        June 12           Fires Creek at Leatherwood access trail-NC—cutting very tall grass

31        June 17           Wagon Train Trail & Arkaquah Trail-GA—cut vegetation from Brasstown Bald Parking area to boundary of the Wilderness.

32        June 19            Wagon Train Trail from the college-GA—cleared water runoffs; cutting small trees, moving sediment, debris and blow downs.

33        June 27            Chunky Gal-NC—blazing an unmarked path into a fully marked and cleared side trail to Shooting Creek Bald (Boeteler Peak).

34        Monthly            Trail Maintenance Record keeping—1 hour per

35        June                Miller Trail-GA—clearing, weed whacking, clipping

36        July 5              Chunky Gal-NC—From Bob Allison campground north half way to Tusquittee Bald clearing, lopping and sawing.

37        July 1              Cooper’s Creek trail-GA—clearing and removal of smaller debris

38        July10             Leatherwood Loop-NC—shored up several sections of trail and made six water bars; Bristol Cabin Trail, Rim Trail, and Omphus Trail.

39        July 13            Trackrock Gap-GA—cutting vegetation branches.

40        July 14            Miller Trek—GA—weeded, cleared 3 small tress and lopped

41        July 17            Jack’s Knob from Brasstown Bald parking lot to hwy 180—GA—trimming.

42        July 21            Miller Trek-GA—weed eating and lopping of upper portion

43        August 1            Chunky Gal-NC—clearing, blazing, repainting blazes

44        August 3          Miller Trek-GA—mapping entire trail with marked blow downs, lopping and moving small trees off trail

45        August 7            Chunky Gal-NC—from Tusquittee Gap approximately 2.5 miles toward Bob Allison Campground; weedwacking, lopping and small tree clearing

46        August 23        Desoto Falls-GA—cleared drains and lopping

47       August 23            High Shoals Falls-GA—cleaned water bars, lopping and weed clearing; signs to stay on trails have disappeared; have blow downs 100 yards from trailhead and 100 ft. from the turn at the double blazes—need chainsaw.

48        August 24          Jacks Knob and Miller Track-GA—removed fallen twigs and branches; Miller Trek requires chain saw and blazing work (This info received after the August report was produced so numbers are included in the September report.)

49        Sept 4              Fires Creek and Chunky Gal-NC—trail clearing of overgrowth

50        Sept 7              Jacks Knob and Miller Track-GA—removed fallen twigs and branches; Miller Trek requires chain saw and blazing work (This info received after the August report was produced so numbers are included in the September report.)

51        Sept 14            Fires Creek Leatherwood Loop—NC—cutting of brush

52        Sept 17            Tusquittee Ranger District First Aid and CPR Training-NC

53        Sept 18            Brasstown Bald and Arkaquah Trail—GA—clearing debris and some sawing; Coopers Creek—GA—adding, repairing and removing trail blazes

54        Sept 22            Equipment Maintenance--NC

55        Sept 23            Chain saw Training—NC

56        Sept 24            Equipment Maintenance—NC

57        Oct 2               Chunky Gal from Perry Gap to Glade Gap and Shooting Creek Bald—NC—trail maintenance; cut blowdowns

58        Oct 16             Miller Trek—GA—Removed orange blazes and replaced with lime green

59        Oct 28             Fires Creek Rim Trail—NC—corrected erosion problems

60        As Required     Equipment Maintenance/Coordination—GA

60A     Nov 2              Arkaquah Trail—Buzzard Roost—GA—cleaned up blow downs.

61        Nov 6              Chunky Gal to Tusquittee Bald—NC—lopping and cutting

62        Nov 7              First Aid, CPR & chain saw training—GA

63        Nov 12            Fires Creek Rim from Big Stamp to Peachtree Bald--NC—cut a blow down, did blazers, trimming

64        Nov  20            Wagon Trail—GA—clearing leaves, lopping and built two small runoffs

64A     Nov 26            Arkaquah Trail from Brasstown Parking Lot to Trackrock Gap—GA—cut wind falls, cleared blow downs

65        Dec 13            Equipment Maintenance/Coordination—NC

65A     Dec 14            Miller Trail—GA—cleared extensive debris

66        Dec 16            Coordination—NC

67        Dec 18            AT & High Shoals—GA—lopping, raking

68        Dec 29            Fires Creek Rim Trail and Bristol Cabin Trail—NC—improved newly retoured section; cleared blow downs debris; channeled running water

When you work on the trails please send the date, the name of the trail, what state it is in, and what was done or found.  If there are any discrepancies, please contact Jim Reynolds at retiredjim@gmail.com

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                                            TRAIL MAINTENANCE AWARDS PROGRAM                                                                                                                         

  A:    Small USFS Volunteer patch (green/white)  for 20 hours

  B:    Large multi-colored USFS patch for 40 hours

  C:    Hours bars (worn below patch)

            1.   50 hours

            2.   100 hours

            3.   200 hours (available at 100-hour intervals to 1000)

  D:    USFS baseball cap for 75 hours

  E:    USFS windbreaker jacket (limited size availability) for 100 hours

                         AWARDS AS OF OCTOBER 31, 2008

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MHH TRAIL MAINTAINERS

We appreciate those members who have agreed to chair each trail maintenance team and  hikers who’ve already adopted trails.  Chunky Gal, Brasstown Bald, and the Duncan Ridge Trail are still in need of additional maintainers.  Please remember that all active hikers are required to participate in at least one trail maintenance activity each year. 

To date, club members have volunteered approximately 410 hours in Georgia and approximately 340 hours in North Carolina during 2006.  This is considerably less than the combined hours of 1153 for 2005.  It took us awhile to get organized this year, so I am confident that our hours will increase during 2007. 

Team Leaders in Georgia:

            Brasstown Resort:  Miller Trek:  Ted Gustafson and Bill Oswald

            Helton Creek Falls:  Bobbi Tower

            High Shoals Falls:  Ben Kennedy

            Wagon Train Trail:  Bert Kunze

            Arkaquah Trail:  Bert Kunze

            Coopers Creek:  Frank Maloney 

Team Leaders in North Carolina:

            Chunky Gal:  Bill and Johanne Kittle

            Fires Creek:  Larry Zarefoss, Sandy Nicolette, Jack Dugger

                Leatherwood Falls Loop Trail:  Gary Thompson

John Quinlan is storing and maintaining the Georgia equipment, and the North Carolina equipment is being stored and maintained by Larry Zarefoss and Sandy Nicolette.  Feel free to call them if you would like to borrow club equipment to use on a trail.