Crosscut Saw Class

The Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest sponsored a Crosscut Sawyer Class for the trail maintainers of the local area. Ranger Robert Thomas was the course director. This was a two day class. The first day of the class was held at the Tellico Ranger Station and consisted on presentations and discussions on all aspects of crosscut saw and axe use and safety. Part of this session was held outside in the parking lot where Ken Jones demonstrated the basics of rejuvenating a vintage crosscut saw and how to sharpen a crosscut. The second day was held entirely outdoors in a close-by section of the Cherokee National Forest where each class member demonstrated various aspects of the use of the one-man and two-man crosscut saws and single- and double-bladed axes. Also demonstrated were special techniques on how to use a notched axe as well as a special tool called a "mechanical underbuck" designed for the purpose to underbuck a log with a one-man crosscut saw. Following the outdoor session, we all returned to the ranger station where Robert met with each of us individually on our performance.
These skills will be put to good use on the numerous miles of wilderness trails within the Tellico Ranger District. Our district has one of the highest percentages of wilderness designated areas of any place in the Eastern United States. Within the district are the Citico Creek Wilderness, the Bald River Wilderness, the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness and the Upper Bald River Wilderness Study Area. Also adjacent to our district there are the Little Frog Wilderness and the Big Frog Wilderness, then just into Georgia is the Cohutta Wilderness. This nearly contiguoous block of these wildernesses comprise nearly all of the wilderness in the Eastern US. Through this area not only runs many district hiking and horse trails but the 300-mile long Benton MacKaye Trail. All of these wilderness trails must be maintained with primitive non-motorized tools.

In our district, most of these trails are maintained by a relatively small group of dedicated trail maintainers. On any day in the forest one might find these hikers and horsemen out maintaining these trails. The hikers providing maintenace are members of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association ((www.bmta.org) or the Cherokee Hiking Club (www.cherokeehikingclub.org) , and the horsemen, who put in a tremendous number of hours on these trails, are members of the SABCH (Southern Appalachian Back Country Horsemen; www.sabch.org ) or the BCHNG (Back Country Horsemen of North Georgia, www.bchng.org ). In fact one would be surprised to find horsemen working on trails horses are not permitted to use and also hikers helping on horse trails. But it happens all the time in this district. This represents cooperation to the highest degree.

The following people attended:

Rick Harris, CHC, BMTA, ATC

Matt Henry, Recreation Technician, Tellico Ranger District Staff

Jim Holland, SABCH, BMTA, BCHNG, ATC

Ken Jones, CHC, BMTA

Butch Horn, BMTA

Jeff Hunter, BMTA

John Kalabus, SABCH

Junior Kyle, BCHNG

Ed Ley, SABCH

Bobby Mitchell, SABCH

Tazz Reid, SABCH

Melinda Towe, BCHNC

Those also helping in the instruction, along with Robert Thomas were Ken Jones and Jim Holland. On the SABCH website there are videos and additional pictures of the crosscut class.