TEHCC AT Maintenance
The TEHCC Trail Maintainers are one of the most notable maintaining groups on the Appalachian Trail. With the TEHCC maintaining one of the longest sections of the Appalachian Trial, the TEHCC maintainers have recorded some of the top hours volunteered in on the Appalachian Trail on a yearly basis.
Maintainers[edit]
The TEHCC A.T. Trail Maintenance crew is divided into two (2) parts. One is the Tuesday maintainers. The Tuesday group is the main group of the club's maintainers that work on weekly basis. Meeting regularly on Tuesdays in Kingsport and Johnson City. The group travels to sections of trail near Erwin, Roan Mountain, and Damascus. To scout out and build relocations, rehab trail, clear blowdowns, and shelter maintenance.
The second group are the section adopters. These are individuals who take on the duty to maintain a section of the A.T. doing mostly light-duty maintenance. Ex. Trimming branches and weeds, trash removal, painting blazes, and reporting heavy-duty maintenance concerns.
Other Crews[edit]
In conjunction with the TEHCC, other groups like the Old-Timers Hiking Club, Friday Hikers, Appalachian State University (ASU) Trail Crew help the scouting blowdowns, recording GPS waypoints, and help with building new trail and other projects.
Special Events[edit]
The TEHCC also hosts various events where they invite hikers, school groups and Boys Scouts to help with trail maintenance.
One of the most notable trail events that TEHCC hosts is the Kincora Hardcore event at the end of Damascus Trail Days. At this event, hikers (current and previous thru-hikers) are invited to give back to the trail. During the two days, the hikers and maintainers work on some of the biggest projects of the year. Ex. relocating lengthy sections of trail, rock work, and building/remodeling shelters.
Some of the accomplishments made by the Hardcore crew are:
- The building of Mountaineer Falls Shelter (2006)
- Relocating trail on Grassy Ridge (2008/2009)
- Relocating trail on Pond Mountain (2010/2011)
The TEHCC also works with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and their Konnarock Trail Crew each summer. During the Konnarock weeks, the Konnarock Crews aid the TEHCC maintainers with some of most technical and/or more remote trail projects. Some of the accomplishments made by the Konnarock crews are:
- Unaka Mountain relocation (2008)
- Little Hump Mountain relocation