Come let me tell you a story about a man named Forest Phil…
I was on a section hike with my son Derrick back in March. We had just climbed Albert Mountain, and sitting there enjoying the view was Jack Coriell and a thru hiker call Forest Phil. We got to talking about hiking and maintenance and he had read about the Round Bald project work last year. I told him about the hiker patches and to contact Bob Peoples when he got to this area. Well he did and has worked on multiple trips on Round Bald and enjoyed it so much he organized a Trail Days “two-day” work trip to help TEHCC with a trail project. As a result we had 27 people on Sunday, May 20 and 34 people on Monday, May 21. We needed to harden the trail on the Hack Line side of Carvers Gap where it was getting muddy during wet periods. The project included putting logs on the downhill side of the trail and putting geotextile, and in places geoweb, and then carrying gravel by the 5 gal. bucket load up to the project site. This was accomplished by forming a bucket brigade. In two days nearly 15 tons of gravel were transported and placed on the trail with pure person power. This is an awesome accomplishment. Phil hopes the two-day work trip will become an annual Trail Days effort to help various clubs with projects. Many thanks go out to Phil and the thru hikers, Ed Oliver and Bruce Cunningham and Bob Peoples for their efforts in getting this project together, transporting hikers, and the normal hard work that goes into this type of project. Also I would like to thank the TEHCC members who came out and supported this project.
by Bill Stowell