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TRAIL MAINTENANCE by John Quinlan TRAIL MAINTENANCE THURSDAYS BEGIN AT 9:00 EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1ST _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Today, 20 November, the MHH team worked the Wagon Train trail, mainly clearing leaves from the water runoffs that we had built earlier this spring. They also built two more runoffs and did a little lopping. The day started cold but did warm up. They covered a lot of ground working hard. I am very impressed with the continuing dedication of many of our members for reaching out on a continuing basis to help fulfill our club's charter in the work of trail maintenance. It does not hurt to repeat that, without MHHs volunteers, these trails would be disappearing over time. My hats off to all those who do make the effort. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday 6 Nov 08 was a very special day that saw 11 MHH volunteers come together at 0730!! We were not alone as a total of three USFS members came to assist in one way or another. We drove to Bob Allison Campground to stage vehicles. 4 of our number went up Chunky Gal trail to Tusquittee Bald; lopping and cutting as they climbed up that very steep grade. Two USFS rangers drove twelve of us (including Terry Dickey our regular Forest Service rep from the Tusquittee Ranger District) all the way to Fires Creek; proceeding along some 10 more miles past Bristol Horse Camp through FS roads to the Far Bald Springs Bald trail. From there Terry, carrying his large chain saw, led us up this trail (#389) to the Rim trail as we cut and lopped. At the Rim we proceeded in an easterly direction and then up to Tusquittee Bald to rendezvous with the other members of the MHH team. We did an amazing level of work on top, and for the first time in many years we now have a beautiful view of not only multiple mountain ranges without any sign of civilization, but also of the now visible Nantahala Lake. What a gorgeous view; made possible by our MHH team and most especially our exceptionally hard working Terry Dickey. He carried his heavy saw the whole way and worked tirelessly the way up, on the top, and even more on the way back down clearing many blow downs of large diameter trees on Chunky Gal all the way to Bob Allison campground. This special USFS addition to our team resulted in the accomplishment of an extraordinary amount of work which will permit our MHH members many years of enjoyment.
It is no exaggeration to say that these 12
individuals deserve much credit for their very physically demanding,
long (eleven hours!!!) and productive day.
Bobbi LeHoullier
Bob LeHoullier
Jacob Dorn
Jim Morgan
Gary Thompson
Larry "Boss Saw" Zarefoss
Roland Hardee
Tom Shope
Darlene Rothenay
Frank Enesat
John Quinlan
Thanks, John Q.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We had a special (unscheduled) maintenance day on Thursday, 28 Oct. The weather was spectacular. Five wonderful MHH volunteers went to the Fires Creek area to work on the Rim Trail. We accessed the area from Fires Cove subdivision into the rim area. The basic work this day was to see what we could do about the serious erosion problems on the southwest end of the Rim Trail. With a prior OK from the USFS we had the option of rerouting a section of trail. After all of us looked at the serious problem defined by the eroded gulleys, we did actually reroute the trail. Work consisted of cutting thru a new path of approximately 300 yards in length to minimize the steepness and vary the pattern to help ensure that the route allowed for water to drain without causing such a straight line of path thus preventing the water to dig the ruts as it did on the original section. We initially used marking tape to create a tentative route; then we re-walked it to fine tune the planned path; then we covered the path three more times to cut our way thru and rake the ground with pulaski and fire rake. We carried in one chain saw, fuel/oil, axe, hand saw, lopper, fire rake, and pulaski. On the way back we split the group of five and two went back to the vehicle in Fires Cove and one group of three went down the Rim to the picnic area. All in all a great day with a lot of work being accomplished. Actually this gave us an extra day this month which works well with the limitations of hunting season ands allows MHH to get to Tusquitte Bald on Nov 6th.
The following participated:
Richard Sullivan
Larry Zarefoss
Gary Thompson
Roland Hardee
John Quinlan
My thanks to each of you. It was a fine day
with a group of good friends.
Thanks, John
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Thursday, Oct 16th, saw a beautiful fall day along with 8 wonderful MHH volunteers come out for a day in the woods. What a great group with an exemplary attitude toward helping out to meet the spirit of our hiking club (and its by-laws) and to meet our goals of "putting something back" for future nature lovers and hikers.
Alison Koopman, USFS, joined us at MaryAnn's restaurant about 0830 to deliver the paint and tools we needed to accomplish the requested work. At the USFS's request our work consisted of removal of all orange blazes on the Federal portion of the Miller Trek; then re-adding new blazes in the prescribed lime green color. All in all there are now fewer blazes than before, but the trail is "open, blazed, and safe" which is our byword for this type of work. I hope the State and Federal folks come together on these colors as now there are multiple colors for the same trail name. Also some minor brush and deadfall removal. Everyone seemed to have a great time and enjoyed the cold drinks at the end.
The MHH group was composed of:
1. Gene Ford
2. Ted Gustafson
3. Tom Shope
4. Jim Reynolds
5. Jim Holliman
6. Sandra Key
7. Rod Whitefield
8. John Quinlan
Kudos to each of them for their unselfish
commitment.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CHAINSAW CERTIFICATION CLASS!!!
Gentlemen (Steve Sutherlin, Richard Sullivan, David
Richardson, Jack Dugger, Bob LeHoullier, John Quinlan): First,
congratulations to each of you for this significant achievement. I
know it was a lot of hard work and personal sacrifice for you to make all
of these, not always so convenient, dates fit into the USFS time schedule.
For all of it a Great Big Thank You from your MHH fellow club members and
me personally.
Yesterday (Sept. 23rd) was a really tough day and
each of you were just great! First Aid, CPR, and now Chain Saw:
You have shown me you truly are the "A"
team!! I do not know about you but after our 12 hour day (for some
even more due to travel) I was one tired puppy last night.
Thanks again, John Quinlan
Special thanks to USFS Ranger Terry Dickey for
making all of this happen and his huge personal commitment to making our
team so successful! Please extend our thanks to USFS Ranger Bobby
Burrell too.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ HELP NEEDED TO MAINTAIN EQUIPMENT! We need someone to help maintain club equipment. John has secured a storage space courtesy of the Forest Service but needs someone to clean, oil and just generally take care of our trail equipment. If you are interested in helping, please call Bob LeHoullier or John Quinlan. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ NEW TRAIL MAINTENANCE HIKES PLANNED Beginning 1 April 08 we plan to supplement our trail maintenance program by offering additional opportunities to members to pitch in to help keep our trails safe and clear for passage. These additional opportunities are now shown on the Spring 2008 hiking calendar. Dates/times are shown: for now starting at 9 am on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Locations to meet are: North Carolina--Ingles parking lot in Hayesville, and Georgia--Mary Ann’s Restaurant in Young Harris. At Mary Ann’s there is an opportunity for breakfast and expanded fellowship for those who wish to meet earlier-suggested time: 8 am. When a trail to be worked is one already adopted, we will be coordinating with the adopter(s) and hopefully offer assistance to them as they lead us to areas they know need work. The goal is to work reasonably, have fun at this, and try to limit our time working to 3-6 hours for each outing.
Coordination has been effected at both the Tusquittee and Blue Ridge Ranger districts, and their response has been most enthusiastic! We can count on their support to access difficult areas to help minimize time for traveling to areas to work, training, limited transport, park passes where needed, and some incentives for participation (more on this later). This can be a great partnership with each member's assistance.
Please give the program a chance, and if you can come it will be greatly appreciated. Normal hiking attire is recommended, along with water, snacks, and as always we recommend a personal first aid kit. Additionally it would be helpful to bring a lopper and/or a hand saw for pruning tree branches and limbs.
Any assistance you can offer is most helpful! Come join us!!
For any further information please contact John Quinlan at 706 896-2430 or via email at quinjgfi@windstream.net.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ REPORT OF 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 OCTOBER 31, 2008
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