Overmountain Shelter closed until further notice due to structural concerns

US Forest Service announced (News Release) that for public safety, the Overmountain Shelter (aka Yellow Mountain barn) has been closed pending further evaluation of options for the structure and site management. Tent camping in the area is still allowed (and the privy remains open!).

No timeline has been set for the review and decision.  The situation with the barn has been discussed and monitored for several years.  Damage observed for a key support beam triggered the closure action. 

7/23 Hike from Hughes Gap to the Barn Shelter

HCCSNA_Overmountain_Barn_From_ATThis is the continuation of the “Hike the TEHCC A.T.” series. We made it to Hughes Gap last month. Now it’s time to hike the balds! If you’ve wanted to hike large sections of the A.T. but avoid the in-and-out, here’s your chance. We’ll need roughly half to help participate in shuttling. This leg will be from Hughes Gap to the Barn Shelter. We’ll take the Overmountain Victory Trail for trail access. Contact tim@tehcc.org for details. Past and future hikes are being detailed at [[Hike Plans:2016 TEHCC AT]]

Trail Wiki Update

Submitted by Tim Schaefer

The holidays and getting the new year started slowed progress a bit, but we were able to complete tagging every page with its current short comings. Now, if there are improvement needs, the trail page has a banner highlighting the potential improvements, and anyone reading the page can see how they can help. Needs include everything from more pictures, trail description detail, to GPS logs. With that complete, I will now turn my attention to trail searching. I’ve played with it a bit and have a basic working version, but the aesthetics need some improvement before it’s ready for the non-engineer. Beyond that, others have added details about Hampton Creek Cove State Natural Area and its trails. There have also been updates to the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail and Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and several GPS track file updates to trails throughout our area. Progress continues and we hope you find it useful and will one day help out as well.