Category: Maintenance Projects

Significant projects done by or organized by the club for typically the AT but could be other trails/waterways as well.

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2011 AT Statistics

Jeff Siirola reporting

Statistics for 2011 AT maintenance has now been added to our year by year summary and charts. Data for 2011 is below. It’s been an amazing year setting all sorts of club records!

Year: 2011
TEHCC Total: 13,631
Adopt-A-Trail: 2,582

WRD Regular Maint.: 2,683
WRD Special Projects: 9,908
WRD Watauga Total: 12,591

NRD Regular Maint.: 701
NRD Special Projects: 339
NRD Nolichucky Total: 1,040

Totals Regular Maint.: 3,384
Totals Special Projects: 10,247
Totals Events: 317
Totals People-Events: 1,747
Totals People: 543

These are record numbers in every category (accounting for redefinition of Ranger District Boundaries in October 2010) except total number of individuals (Totals People) which is second-highest-ever.

CORRECTION: Because of several corrected worker identity errors, the total number of individuals in 2010 (Totals People) should be 457 (not 445). All other data for 2010 on the website are believed to be correct. Corrected 2010 and new 2011 data are highlighted on the attached spreadsheet.

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Konnarock Crew – Hughes Gap to Cloudland Relocations

Scheduled for July 8-10, and July 29-31, 2011

Leaders: Joe DeLoach and Carl Fritz

Last year, we began one of our most ambitious Appalachian Trail relocations ever, from Hughes Gap to Cloudland atop Roan Mountain.  This formerly 2.6-mile section of Trail ascends 2200′, with a 0.4-mile slight descent along the way, making it possibly the steepest section of the A. T. in the south.  We’ve flagged numerous relocations to climb the mountain at a sustainable 10-12% side-hill grade, and built the first four with Hard Core, student groups, and Club outings in 2010.  This year, we’ll tackle some sections higher on the mountain with all our resources, including the Konnarock Crew, which will work near the midpoint of the section.  The Konnarock Crew, in its 29th year, is managed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and works with the 12 southern clubs.  We are fortunate to have them for five weeks this year, with plans to devote the first three weeks to these relocations and the final two weeks of July 29-31 and August 11-15 to putting more gravel on Round Bald.  The Crew arrives on a Thursday afternoon, has three full days of work Friday-Sunday, and departs Monday afternoon; so the best days to work with them are Friday-Sunday.  Volunteers who work at least 40 hours with the Crew receive a Konnarock T-shirt for their efforts.  Please contact Joe DeLoach or Carl Fritz if you’re interested in helping.

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2011 Spring Storms

As everybody who lives in this area is aware, we’ve been pummeled with storms over the last couple of months. This of course has caused its share of blowdowns on the trail. We’ve had hikers reporting blowdowns throughout various parts of the trail. Combined with it being around the same time our crew of regular maintainers planning and executing our big maintenance projects of HardCore and Konnarock Crew and gearing up for the biennial AT conference, it’s been a rough spring. If you are aware of any, we always appreciate a warning. Send messages to atmaint@tehcc.org or use our contact form.

Pond Mountain should now be clear. We’ve got some unconfirmed reports of blowdowns between Moreland Gap and Mountaineer Falls Shelter. Here’s some pictures of clearing out some blowdowns near Temple Hill Gap.

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Konnarock Crew – Hughes Gap to Cloudland Relocations

Scheduled for June 3-5, June 17-19, July 8-10, and July 29-31, 2011

Leaders: Joe DeLoach and Carl Fritz

Last year, we began one of our most ambitious Appalachian Trail relocations ever, from Hughes Gap to Cloudland atop Roan Mountain.  This formerly 2.6-mile section of Trail ascends 2200′, with a 0.4-mile slight descent along the way, making it possibly the steepest section of the A. T. in the South.  We don’t always relocate a Trail section just because it’s steep, but steep trails that run on a ridgeline are very prone to erosion, with only the rockiness of parts of this section retarding that erosion.  It is also a treacherous descent, especially in the icy or rainy conditions that are prevalent at those elevations.  We’ve flagged numerous relocations to climb the mountain at a sustainable 10-12% side-hill grade, and built the first four with Hard Core, student groups, and Club outings in 2010.  This year, we’ll tackle some sections higher on the mountain with all our resources, including the Konnarock Crew which will work near the midpoint of the section.  The Konnarock Crew, in its 29th year, is managed by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and works with the 12 Southern clubs.  We are fortunate to have them for five weeks this year, with plans to devote the first four weeks to these relocations and the final week of August 11-15 to putting more gravel on Round Bald.  The Crew arrives on a Thursday afternoon, has three full days of work Friday-Sunday, and departs Monday afternoon.  So the best days to work with them are Friday-Sunday.  Volunteers who work at least 40 hours with the Crew receive a Konnarock T-shirt for their efforts.  Please contact Joe DeLoach or Carl Fritz if you’re interested in helping.

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Friends of Warriors Path Work Day, April 30, 2011

Leader:  Kevin Barham
Warriors Path is requesting help with their upcoming maintenance event, Friends of Warriors Path Work Day.  FOWP is typically able to get a good numbers of volunteers at their work day events, but often need a few more experienced volunteers to help lead the pack.  The projects for the day are still being determined, but will be on a hiking trail, bike trail or disc-golf trail.  Please contact Kevin Barham, kbarham@eastman.com, if you have any questions or project requests.

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Hard Core – Pond Mountain and Hughes Gap Relocations (2010)

The 10th annual Hard Core event became reality on Sunday, May 16, and Monday, May 17.  It was a reunion for many of us, but we also welcomed many first timers.  As usual, everyone had fun working hard. On Sunday the work project was to build trail relocation on the trail south side of Pond Mountain.  This particular relocation was to eliminate the worst piece of the AT on Pond Mountain. On the second day we started a relocation north of Hughes Gap to again replace a very steep area of the AT.  The 2000-foot relocation is replacing a little more than 700 feet of existing AT.

Continue reading “Hard Core – Pond Mountain and Hughes Gap Relocations (2010)”

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Hard Core – Big Laurel Branch Wilderness and Grassy Ridge Relocations (2009)

The ninth annual Damascus Hard Core, held Sunday, May 17, and Monday, May 18, is now history. And it was a very exciting event! We hoped the Saturday night rains would clear sufficiently by mid-morning Sunday, and they did. Monday was a beautiful blue-sky day. Every year, people come to socialize and work at this event, and this year, they found plenty of both. Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred, even with all the rock work. 139 people, including 29 club members and guests from ATC and TVA, plus 110 hikers worked 2282 hours to make this two-day event a tremendous success. We built 4500 feet of very difficult sidehill relocations in these two days. This exceeds our record of 3800 feet built in 2008; and it is by far the most difficult trail overall that we have built with Hard Core. Continue reading “Hard Core – Big Laurel Branch Wilderness and Grassy Ridge Relocations (2009)”