Cherokee Hiking Club
198 Crews Drive, Benton, TN 37307

Tellico River Cleanup Project
Saturday, March 8, 2008

Brief Description:   This is a once a year endeavor to clean up the trash from the road, trailheads, and access points along the Tellico River, one of the prettiest mountain streams in the United States. This area sees a lot of traffic from sightseers, fly fishermen, hikers, backpackers, kayakers, and those on their way to the ORV area up at the headwaters of the Tellico River. Unfortunately, many of these people don't bother to clean up after their lunches and also throw their trash out their car windows for "others" to clean up. Our goal is to do just that--be the "others" to return this area to a pristine state, at least for a little while.

 

Length:  We will assign specific sections of the river road and Cherohala Skyway to different small groups. Each section may be about a mile or so long.

        Activity Leader: Ken Jones, 423-745-2451 (home), mkjones@comcast.net

Directions to the Trailhead: Meet at the Tellico Ranger Station on Tellico River Road for sign-in after 8AM. To get to the ranger station, take the Cherohala Skyway east into the mountains out of Tellico Plains. Just past mile post 5, turn right onto Tellico River Road. Go about a half mile to the entrance to the ranger station on your left.

Those who wish to carpool should meet at the Etowah  Bi-Lo parking lot at 7:30 AM. Clayton Pannell will be there.

Service Project Description: Trash bags and gloves will be provided.  Bring your own food and drink. You will be assigned a section to clean up and given the needed directions. Afterwards, you will receive a special T-shirt as a thank you from the national forest, at least until they run out of them.

 

Post Trip Report: We had a surprising number of people who came in the snow for the Tellico River Cleanup, with over 60 participants from various hiking clubs. By the time we started, snow had already covered the ground. Unfortunately, we didn't pick up a lot of trash. The snow cover hid a lot of stuff, and the bad footing prevented people from going down the banks to get at much of the trash. Everyone had given up by noon due to the poor conditions. There were only 2 of us Cherokee Hiking Club members there, Clayton Pannell and Ken Jones. Clayton also brought his grand daughter, Cady Pannell, to help.

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