Benton MacKaye Trail Section 15 - Unicoi Gap to Sandy Gap

Sunday, February 1, 2009: The following brush cut trail BMT Section 15c:
                                                   worked on trail               travel time
Richard Sullivan (new member)          5.5 hours                      3 hours
Pam Sullivan (new member)               5.5 hours                      3 hours
Liz Carter                                            5.5 hours                      1 hour
Butch Horn                                          5.5 hours                      1 hour

We found trees that needed to be cut. There were approximately 5 trees to be cut. There is a section of the trail where we found that horse had been on the trail and wild hogs had rotted the trail. The ground was cold and we could not repair that area.

Monday, May 25, 2009: Rick and Brenda Harris did their Walk-Through from Sandy Gap to Unicoi Gap (BMT Sections 15a-c) to check the condition of the trail. The report is attached. A lot of work needs to be done especially on the section from Six Mile Gap to Tate Gap, but the rest is in reasonably good condition.

Rick Harris, 2 hours travel, 6 hours work time
Brenda Harris, 2 hours travel, 6 hours work time

Tuesday, May 26, 2009: I (Ken Jones) was certainly thankful to have Robert Thomas’ help this morning in getting my truck up to Tate Gap on BMT Section 15b. The gated road up the mountain was in the worst shape that I had ever seen it. There has been lots of erosion damage with big rocks exposed and deep ditches down the middle of the road. We had to saw dead pines blocking the road and throw the logs in the ditches to fill up the holes in order to get through in several places. After we finally made it up the road to Tate Gap, we installed a new carsonite post with the #2 and a left turn arrow. This should hopefully steer northbound BMT hikers onto the foot path and off the road leading to private property. There were double blazes on a tree to indicate this turn, but Mother Nature had reclaimed the painted blazes by fading the paint and growing green stuff over them. I believe that the carsonite post should be visible to any hiker paying even a little attention to their route. As Rick Harris recently reported, the blazes all need to be refreshed for this section of the Benton MacKaye Trail.

After lunch I worked on the Cowcamp Trail, clearing 4 trees with the axe. They were 6”, 8”, 10” and a top blocking the trail. It was hot and humid axe work. By the last tree I was so wet that I was praying for another afternoon shower, but didn’t get any such relief.

Saturday, July 25, 2009: BMT Section 15b, Six Mile Gap to Tate Gap. Rick Harris, Brenda Harris and Steve Cartwright logged out this entire 1.8 mile section of 47 trees by chain saw and another 7 or so by pulling them to the side of the trail, for a total of 54 trees. We also blazed the entire section with the BMT diamond blaze. Noone will get lost for the next few years, thanks to the expert blazing. Tomorrow others go back to brush out this entire section and bring it up to standards. We parked one vehicle along Doc Martin Road at the base of the mountain and drove the other vehicle up to Waucheesi Bald. From there we hiked down to Six Mile Gap to start our work. The access trail from Waucheesi has numerous logs as well which at some future date we need to clear out of the trail. Doc Martin Road is all but impassible beyond the FS gate at this point. Our volunteer hours are as follows:

Rick Harris, 1.5 hours travel, 6.5 hours work time
Brenda Harris, 1.5 hours travel, 6.5 hours work time
Steve Cartwright, 3 hours travel, 6.5 hours work time

Sunday, July 25, 2009: BMT Section 15b, Six Mile Gap to Tate Gap. Rick Harris, James Anderson and Richard Sullivan brushed out this 1.8 mile section today so this section is now up to standard, fully logged and brushed out and with fresh blazes, an amazing improvement from what it was just 2 days ago. Following the work trip, we all enjoyed home made cookies and pop on Richard Sullivan's tailgate. Rain was predicted but never materialized. It was sunny, breezy and fairly cool all day up at the high elevation. Our volunteer hours are as follows:

Rick Harris, 1.5 hours travel time, 5.5 hours work time
James Anderson, 3 hours travel time, 5.5 hours work time
Richard Sullivan, 3 hours travel time, 5.5 hours work time

Tuesday, September 8, 2009: BMT Section 15a, Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap. Rick Harris, with nothing to do on this beautiful Tuesday drove to Unicoi Gap, then refreshed blazes from the gap north to the gap just north of Peels Gap, a 3 mile section. His golden retriever Jake also came along. Rick also used this trip to check out the condition of the trail in preparation for the BMTA worktrip scheduled for Saturday, September 26.

Rick Harris, 1.5 hours travel time, 6 hours work time
TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 7.5 hours

Sunday, September 27, 2009: BMT Section 15a, Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap. Rick Harris and George Owen worked on this section for the monthly TN/NC BMTA worktrip. Originally there were 8 people who were going to participate but 6 backed out before the trip, mostly due to the heavy floods in the area over the last few days with flooded basements, etc. Two of the regular workers also recently got employment so they are now working for real money. George and Rick met at Unicoi Gap and first went south on the trail to clear the brush from under the powerlines, then they went by vehicle through the forest gate north to where the trail leaves the fire road. From there they headed up the trail. George used the brushcutter and Rick used the chain saw. George got about half of this section cleared, especially the most overgrown sections. Rick cleared 8 trees from the trail corridor and also painted blazes from the gap north of Peels Top down to the horse trail intersection. This section now has fresh blazes all the way except for the short stretch along the horse trail. We still need to go back soon to finish off the brushing out we did not get to. Even though it was just the two of them, they got a lot of work done. Volunteer hours were as follows:

Rick Harris, 2.0 hours travel time, 8.0 hours work time
George Owen, 3.0 hours travel time, 8.0 hours work time
TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 21.0 hours

Monday, October 19, 2009: BMT Section 15a, Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap. I (Rick Harris) went back to the section from Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap to finish off the brushing out we did not get done last month. This section of trail is now maintained to standards, completely logged and brushed out and blazes all repainted. My volunteer hours were as follows:

Rick Harris, 2 hours travel time, 7 hours work time
TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 9 hours

Monday, October 26, 2009: BMT Section 15c, Six Mile Gap to Sandy Gap. Rick Harris and Bill Hodge went in from Waucheesi to Six Mile Gap, then logged out with crosscut saw 17 trees from there to Sandy Gap, including the top of one big oak with lots of branches across the trail. Also we partially brushed out the trail too, since we were running out of time. This section is maintained to standards, though it could use some more brushing out in the future. We did get everything adequately cleared, just not as well as I would have liked. It was a beautiful crisp fall day with great views of the surrounding ridges in full fall foliage regalia. We me a couple hiking with their Golden Poodle and a hunter trying to find his wayward dog, both groups twice - coming and going. Both groups were very appreciative of all the work we have done on the BMT, especially though the Heart of Darkness.Volunteer hours were as follows:

Rick Harris, 3 hours travel time, 6 hours work time
Bill Hodge, 3 hours travel time, 6 hours work time
TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 18 hours

Thursday, June 3, 2010: BMT Section 15a - Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap and the Unicoi Mtn Horse Trail. We had a large work crew of 6 volunteers to work on the Unicoi Mountain Horse Trail today. We drove in the gated Wildlife Road from Unicoi Gap, then started hiking up toward Peel's Gap. We had enough to saw blow downs off the trail and brush out some of the worst spots. We followed the trail and BMT up to the trail intersection, then turned back downhill to Doc Roger's Fields. The total number of trees cleared was 41, with all but a couple of them being on the horse trail portion that is not shared by the Benton MacKaye Trail.

Here are the volunteer hours for this work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	8.5	10
Tazz Reid	1	8.5	9.5
Bobby Mitchell	1.5	8.5	10
John Kalabus	1.5	8.5	10
Jeffery Hunter	4	8.5	12.5
Roger Taylor	1	8.5	9.5
Totals	10.5	51	61.5

Thursday, July 29, 2010: BMT Section 15b - Six Mile Gap to Tate Gap - Phil Gooch and his two sons went out to brush out the BMT from Six Mile Gap toward Tate Gap using a gas-powered brush cutter. They got as far as the gap just before the top of Cantrell Top. Most of the work was done by Phil as his sons were just out enjoying the day. Volunteer hours were as follows:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Phil Gooch	2	5	7

Wednesday, August 18, 2010: BMT Section 15b - Six Mile to Tate Gap - Phil Gooch, Jim Sirmans, and Rick Harris went out to finish brushing out this section of the BMT today. Phil and Jim are the new maintainers for this section. We went in from Waucheesi Bald, down to Six Mile Gap and south on the BMT toward Tate Gap. We brushed out the last 1.3 miles of the trail on this hot high-humidity day. The entire section is now in great shape except for a couple of easy to get around blowdowns, which can wait until the spring logging activities. The blazes are also in great shape. We also cleared the high weeks at the start of the Warriors Passage Trail on our way out. Volunteer hours are below:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Phil Gooch	1	7.5	8.5
Jim Sirmans	1	7	8
Rick Harris	1.5	7	8.5
Totals	3.5	21.5	25

Friday, September 10, 2010: BMT Section 15c - Sandy Gap to Six Mile Gap - Tom Smith and Rick Harris removed the tree blocking the trail about 0.3 miles south of Sandy Gap and also removed 4 other logs from the trail. They also brushed out the trail for the first 0.8 miles of so of the trail from Sandy Gap. They will go back at a later date to finish the rest of the brushing out after the rare plant drops its seeds. Afterwards, Rick checked out the reworded Conasauga Falls Trail and found it in great shape. The new rock steps down to the falls are a great addition and the trail tread all along the trail has been markedly improved. He spend about an hour removing 2 bags of trash from the parking lot and along the trail. Volunteer hours are below:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Tom Smith	1	3	4
Rick Harris	1.5	4	5.5
Totals	2.5	7	9.5

Wednesday, September 15, 2010: BMT Section 16a - Sandy Gap to Round Top - Today, Larry Dunn, Ken Jones, and Eric Eades (section maintainer) finished brushing out the trail from the gap north of Hazelnut to Round Top. Ken went on ahead, as I was sucking wind, to make sure we got finished, and I think he even went a bit ahead of there. There are no additional blowdowns or hornets (they are gone, and the 2nd hornet site got brushed out). The area that we did in July is still in good, but not great, shape. It is very passable for the entire length. It is in good shape for the Sierra Club backpack scheduled the weekend of Oct 2.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Eric Eades	4.5	7.5	12
Ken Jones	2.5	7.5	10
Larry Dunn	3.25	7.5	10.75
Totals	10.25	22.5	32.75

Saturday, December 4, 2010: BMT Section 15c - Sandy Gap to Six Mile Gap - Four scouts and two adult leaders from Boy Scout Troop 797 in Atlanta joined two of our local maintainers to work on this section of the BMT as part of their requirements for the 50-Miler Award. The group went in from Sandy Gap on this chilly wet day and worked their way up toward Six Mile Gap with loppers, swing blades, and crosscut saws. Three trees were removed and lots of brush was cleared. They did not make it all the way to Sandy Gap before they ran out of time. The scouts then returned to the Smoky Mountain Christian Camp to spend the night Saturday night before returning to Atlanta. Volunteer hours are below:

*Name*	*Travel Hours*	*Work Hours*	*Totals*
Bobby Mitchell	2	5.5	7.5
Tom Smith	1	5.5	6.5
1 Adults + 4 Scouts	0	5.5 x 5	27.5
Butch Horn	2	0	2
Totals	5	38.5	43.5

Saturday, February 26, 2011: BMT Section 15c - Six Mile to Sandy Gap - This was the monthly TN/NC BMTA Work Trip. The day started out with temperatures right around freezing, but with abundant sunshine. By the time we reached Sandy Gap, the temperatures had warmed some, but most of us stated the hike with jackets on. We all came out of the jackets after the first couple of uphill grades on the way to Sixmile Gap. On the hike in, we cleared one tree with the crosscut saw, limbed out another, and threw a couple of tops from the trail. At Sixmile Gap, we turned around and started brushing out the first 1/2 mile that is home to the Ash-leaved Bush-pea. This is a relatively rare plant, so the Mitigating Actions in the Environmental Assessment require that we brush this portion out only in winter. We worked hard in this portion and finished it before lunch time. After lunch we finished another 1/2 mile of brush out work to tie into a portion that was brushed out by a scout group last December. We finished this last mile back to Sandy Gap by improving on the work completed by the scouts. This entire section is now in good shape and returned to Forest Service Maintenance Standards. Here are the volunteer hours for this work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	3.5	5	8.5
Richard Sullivan	3	5	8
Larry Dunn	3.5	5	8.5
Tom Smith	1	5	6
Totals	11	20	31

Saturday-Sunday, May 14-15, 2011 - BMT Section 15a - Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap - Ernie Culpepper (section maintainer) and two friends worked 2 days on his section to clear the trail of all blowdowns and brush. This section is now in great shape.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ernie Culpepper		10
Bruce Baker		10
Philip Henry		10
Totals		30

July 19, 2011 - BMT Section 15c - Tate Gap to Six Mile Gap - Phil Gooch and Jim Sirmans weed whacked the BMT section between Six Mile Gap and Tate Gap today.. It appears someone on an ATV (illegally) went through recently and cut all the logs off that section so it is really pristine right now,.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Phil Gooch	1	6	7
Jim Sirmans	1	6	7
Totals	2	12	14

Friday, July 29, 2011: Kirkland Creek Trail and BMT Section 15c - Friday two groups of volunteers tackled some annual work on the Kirkland Creek Trail. The work included logging out blowdowns from the trail and brushing out the trail. It was a pretty hot and humid day, but we managed to complete the project. One of the saw crews also logged out the Benton MacKaye Trail from Six-Mile Gap to Sandy Gap.

Because we worked in two-groups I did not capture every name.

Bill Hodge 10 Hours Worked 1 Hour Travel

Ken Jones 10 Hours Worked 1.5 Hours Travel

Bobby Mitchell 10 Hours Worked 1.5 Hours Travel

Jim Holland 10 Hours Worked 2 Hours Travel

Peter Reber 10 Hours Worked 2 Hours Travel

Reggie Jay 6 Hours Worked 3 Hours Travel

Betty Petty 6 Hours Worked 3 Hours Travel

Donald Box 6 Hours Worked 3 Hours Travel

There were two other volunteers whose names I did not catch that each worked 6 hours and had 3 hours travel time.

Other non-volunteer hours;

Stephen Eren 10 hours Worked - No Travel Time

August 21, 2011 - BMT Section 15a - Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap - The section of the trail from Unicoi Gap to Tate Gap has been cleaned up. The trail is in very good shape and should be ok until fall.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ernie Culpepper	10	14	24
Bruce Baker	10	14	24
Philip Henry	10	14	24
Totals	30	42	72

Friday, April 27, 2012 - BMT AHS VV Day #5 - BMT Sections 12d and 15c/16a - We first installed a sign on the McFarland Road section of the BMT where the trail leaves an old logging road and enters a wildlife road. We then went to Sandy Gap and installed a sign north from the gap and did tread work near Moss Gap. We also logged out the trail going south about 0.5 miles from Sandy Gap toward Six Mile Gap. (BMTA helpers were Rick Harris and Bob Ruby)

*Name*	*Travel Hours*	*Work Hours*	*Totals*
Richard Harris	0.5	7.5	8
Bob Ruby	0.5	7.5	8
John Carmichael - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Elizabeth Miller - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Mona Lloyd - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Karen Stearns - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Jim Kern - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Steve Rountree - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Patty Pikul - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Jane Greischar - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Gretta Farmer - VV	0	7.5	7.5
Totals	1	75	76

Thursday, May 31, 2012 - BMT Section 15b - Six Mile Gap to Tate Gap - Phillip Gooch, his son Todd and I [Jim Sirmans] weed-whacked and lopped our section from Six Mile Gap to Tate's Gap as well as the entry trail from Waucheesi down to Six Mile Gap. There are three or four trees across the trail but they can all be stepped over or walked around without any problem. We did not have a chain saw so we will have to go back and clear them later. A little excitement occured near Cantrell Top when Phillip almost whacked a very large timber rattler before seeing her...the fun was getting by so he could continue the work at hand. We left home at 7:00...it took 30 minutes to go 5 miles due to the horrible condition of Bald River Road and the Waucheese access road (almost impassible in many spots due to erosion). Returned home at 3:00 for a total of 8 hours each. If you have influence with the FS folks, they sure need to repair those roads before they lose them completely.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Todd Gooch	1	7	8
Phil Gooch	1	7	8
Jim Sirmans	1	7	8
Totals	3	21	14

August 16, 2012 - BMT Section 15b - Tate Gap to Six Mile Gap - Jim Sirmins and friends cleared their section of trail today of brush and logs.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Bob Ascot	1	4	5
Phil Gooch	1	4	5
Jim Sirmans	1	4	5
Totals	3	12	15