Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club
Supporting hiking and canoeing in the North East Tennessee area
Carl Fritz reporting
The Damascus Hard Core event was Sunday, May 20th and Monday, May 21st. This is the largest trail maintenance event involving hikers on the entire Appalachian Trail. In spite of the obstacles, the hikers, club members and friends stepped up and volunteered in numerous ways to make this 12th annual outing a huge success. Continue reading “2012 Damascus Hard Core”
Collins Chew reporting
We hiked from Braemar over Pond Mountain on the AT to Shook Branch to measure a new relocation near the top of Pond Mountain. The relocation measured 1851 feet long and the entire section ended up 0.1 miles shorter than the guide book distance. We walked about 7 miles including the mile on the blue-blaze trail from Braemar. There were a fair number of wildflowers with Mountain Laurel the showiest. I was also fascinated by the white and pink-flowered shrub at low elevations at both ends. I guess it is Corymbed Spirea. The flower spikes of Galax got the most comments. Some flame azalea was still blooming. Hikers were: Bob Harvey, Lowell Toof, and Collins Chew.
Carl Fritz reporting
“Hard Core! Hard Core! Hard Core!” was shouted late Monday afternoon as the two new relocations were opened. Anyone on Pond Mountain heard those enthusiastic shouts. And well deserved they were. These two relocations comprised about 2150 feet and were by far the toughest that Hard Core has built. Continue reading “2011 Damascus Hard Core”
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.
