Benton MacKaye Trail Section 17 - Tellico River to Beech Gap

Saturday, May 17, 2008: BMT Sycamore Creek sections 17a/17b. Volunteer Maintainer Names: Pam and Kent Mathews. 5.9 miles brushed; cut 6 small saplings with hand saw to route trail around the hog waller on the upper end; also, cut 3 blow downs around 6” in diameter with hand saw; 5 water diversions serviced; weather was 70 degrees and dry. On the upper section there were 4 small blow downs around 8 -10” in diameter that were easy to step over.

Volunteer Name           Work Hrs         Travel Hrs        Total Hrs
Pam Mathews              5                      3.5
Kent Mathews              7                      3.5
Todd Duncan               7                      3.5
Zac Duncan                  7                      3.5
Chris Shields                7                      3.5
Alex Patton                  7                      3.5
Will Stogner                 7                      3.5
Brandon Morris            7                      3.5
Quinn Epperly              4                      3.5
Blake Houser               4                      3.5
Kyle Kim                     7                      3.5
Keenan Kolinsky          4                      3.5
Michael Fromkee         4                      3.5
Bobby Stogner            7                      3.5

Total hours:                  84                    49                    133

Saturday, November 1 - Sycamore Creek section of the Benton MacKaye Trail, BMT sections 17a/17b. Meet at the Charles Hall Museum in Tellico Plains at 8:30 a.m. Contact Pam Matthews at pmath0804@yahoo.com to let her know you plan to go. We need to be sure we have enough tools for the job.

We had a stunningly beautiful fall day to work on Sycamore Creek Trail, with leaves near peak colors. Pam and Kent Mathews had once again done an outstanding job of lining up their friends to brush out the trail. Their consistent maintenance of the trail twice each year has started paying dividends in less work for the crews, and better conditions throughout the year. They divided the work group into two crews, with one starting on each end of the 6 mile long trail. By about 2 pm we met in the middle of the trail, having completed sling blade and lopper work to put the trail in excellent condition again. We cleared 3 small trees from the trail, leaving 2 larger trees at about 1.5 miles down from the top of the trail. These trees are easy to pass through, so we will leave them until next spring when they may very well be joined by some others.

Here are the trail workers that made this trip such a success:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Ken Jones

2.5

5.5

8

Kent Mathews

4

5.5

9.5

Pam Mathews

4

5.5

9.5

Heath Hawkins

2

5.5

7.5

Wallace Graham

2

5.5

7.5

Preston Hawkins

2

5.5

7.5

Charlie Shields

4

5.5

9.5

Chris Shields

4

5.5

9.5

Todd Duncan

4

5.5

9.5

Zach Duncan

4

5.5

9.5

Greg Keck

4

5.5

9.5

Dalton Keck

4

5.5

9.5

Deborah Lively

4

5.5

9.5

Devin Gray

4

5.5

9.5

Jonathan Johnson

4

5.5

9.5

Brandon Morris

4

5.5

9.5

Totals

56.5

88

144.5

Sunday, June 7, 2009: BMT Section 17d. Rick Harris did a walkthrough from Beech Gap to Mud Gap. The report is completed and submitted. The trail needs a lot of brushing out and several logs removed. Also, signs should be made where the trail crosses the Cherohala and North River Road and at Beech Gap and Mud Gap. Hours are as follows:
Rick Harris, travel time 2 hours, work time 4 hours
TOTAL VOLUNTEER HOURS: 6 hours

Tuesday, June 23, 2009: Rick Harris alone brushed out the first mile of the Benton MacKaye Trail Section 17d from Mud Gap toward Beech Gap. He decided to brush out this section off schedule because he received word that the Sequoyah Hiking Club is planning on hiking this section on Saturday, June 27. He plans to return to this section on Friday, June 26 with Bobby Mitchell to finish brushing out this section to the North River Road and to log out the section as well.

Volunteer Hours for this work trip:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris

1.5

5.5

7.0

Totals

1.5

5.5

7.0

Friday, June 26, 2009: Rick Harris and Bobby Mitchell brushed and logged out the Benton MacKaye Trail Section 17d from where we quit on Tuesday to the Unicoi Overlook on the Cherohala Skyway, a distance of about 1.8 miles.

Volunteer Hours for this work trip:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Bobby Mitchell 2 7.5 9.5

Rick Harris

1.5

7.5

8.5

Totals

3.5

15.0

18.0

Sunday, June 28, 2009: Rick Harris and Bob Ruby cleared and logged out the 0.3 mile section of the Benton MacKaye Trail Section 17d from Beech Gap to the Unicoi Crest Overlook on the Cherohala Skyway, then brushed out the BMT Section 17c from Whigg Meadow to Mud Gap (it had been previously logged out). With this completed, this puts the entire section from Beech Gap to the top of the Sycamore Creek Trail in perfect condition.

Volunteer Hours for this work trip:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Bob Ruby 5 7 12

Rick Harris

2

7

9

Totals

7

14.0

21

Saturday, August 8, 2009: Rick Harris refreshed the blazes on the BMT Section 17c from Mud Gap to Whigg Meadow, and also cut out two trees across the trail. Volunteer hours for this short work trip were as follows:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris

2

3

5

Totals

2

3

5

Monday, August 10, 2009: Rick Harris and Tom Waters refreshed the blazes on the BMT Section 17d from Mud Gap to Beech Gap. Volunteer hours for this work trip were as follows:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Tom Waters 2 5 7

Rick Harris

1

3

6

Totals

3

8

13

Wednesday, August 12, 2009: Rick Harris and Eric Eades brushed out BMT Section 17b and part of Section 17a (Sycamore Creek Trail from Whigg Meadow Road to Tellico River Road) coming in from the top along the Whigg Meadow Road and exiting at the fish hatchery. Most of what is left is in very good shape and needs only minimal brushing out. There are several trees across the trail which need to be cut out and the blazes need refreshing. This was a long hard day of work for the two of us. We spend 9 hours on the trail to accomplish what we did with two brushcutters.

Volunteer hours for this work trip were as follows:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Eric Eades 5 9 14

Rick Harris

2

9

11

Totals

7

18

25

Saturday, August 29, 2009: TN/NC BMTA Work Trip on Benton MacKaye Trail Section 17a/17b, Sycamore Creek Trail. We will finish off the brushing out of the lower 3 miles of the trail, refresh all the blazes and log out the entire 6 miles of the trail. Meet at Tellico Grains at 8AM. Will eat at Nut'n Fancy afterwards for supper. Contact Rick Harris at 423-253-6358 (home), 513-260-1184 (cell) or HarrisRi@aol.com
    Eight maintainers turned out on this work trip to clear Sycamore Creek Trail including Pam and Kent Matthews (section maintainers for this section), Rick & Brenda Harris, Ken Jones, Steve Cartwright, Rick Foster and Tom Waters. Ken and Steve logged out the 6 miles of the trail of 15 trees, Brenda and Tom repainted the blazes, and the rest of us brushed out the lower 3 miles of the trail. This trail is now cleared to USFS standards. Before the trip we had breakfast at Tellico Grains, and afterwards we ate supper at Nut'n Fancy. For dinner we were joined by Charles and Billie Hall, parents of Pam Matthews. A big plus was all the local history we gleaned from Pam whose ancestors grew up right along this segment of trail as well as her dad Charles Hall, former mayor of Tellico Plains and former owner of the Tellico Telephone Company and the inspiration for the Charles Hall Museum, which details the history of the Tellico Plains area. We learned much about the local area of interest to us all. It was a wonderful work trip enjoyed by all. Volunteer hours for this work trip were as follows:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Ken Jones

2.5

6.0

8.5

Kent Mathews

4

6.5

10.5

Pam Mathews

4

6.0

10.0

Rick Harris

1

6.0

7.0

Brenda Harris

1

6.0

7.0

Steve Cartwright

2

6.0

8.0

Tom Waters

1.5

6.0

7.5

Rick Foster

1.5

6.0

7.5

Totals

17.5

48.5

66.0

Saturday, January 23, 2010: BMT Sections 16c/16e-17c - Winter Saw-A-Thon - Nine of us cleared many many logs from the trail corridor between Sledrunner Gap and Mud Gap this relatively warm dry winter day. We broke into three crews. Crew 1 cleared 18 logs with chainsaw from Whigg Meadow to Mud Gap, including one huge mulit-treed mess which in its own right took 1.5 hours. Crew 2 cleared 12 logs with chainsaw from the Sycamore Creek section and another 4 from the first half mile heading up Sugar Mtn from the Tellico River. Crew 3 cleared with crosscut saw 12 trees from Beaverdam Bald/Sledrunner Gap down to a short distance before the confluence with the Bald River. In all we cleared 44 trees from the trail, most as a result of the recent high wind storms over the Christmas holidays. Afterwards we ate dinner at the Nut'n Fancy in Tellico Plains. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris 2 6 8

Brenda Harris 2 6 8

Mike Harwood 1.5 6 7.5

Marty Dominy 8 6 14

Tom Smith 2 6 8

Tom Waters 2 6 8

Bill Hodge 2 6 8

James Anderson 3 6 9

David Blount 7 6 13

Totals

29.5

54

83.5

Thursday, January 28, 2010: BMT Section 17d - Mud Gap to Beech Gap - We had a large crew of 9 that showed up for the work trip today. Six workers started in from Farr Gap logging out Fodderstack Trail (see report on section 18b). Three workers decided to log out BMT Section 17d from Beech Gap to Mud Gap. The Mud Gap to Beech Gap crew started from Mud Gap and cleared 20 trees between there and North River Road, then another 17 trees between there and Beech Gap. The "Grand Canyon" continues to enlarge and now it is necessary to cross even farther upstream of the location of the old bridge, which remains down in the bottom of the chasm. A decision has not yet been made on how to repair this section. In the meantime, we are encouraging hikers to follow the Cherohala Skyway from Unicoi Crest parking area to Beech Gap for obvious safety reasons. We also removed many branches and small trees off the trail without the use of a chainsaw. Volunteer hours for this crew of three are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris 2 5 7

Tom Smith 2 5 7

Rick Foster 1 5 6

Totals

29.5

54

83.5

Monday, April 5, 2010 - BMT Section 17c-d - Five of us met at the Unicoi Crest Overlook to flag a possible reroute around the "Grand Canyon" between Beech Gap and Unicoi Crest Overlook. We chose a route with a crossing over the drainage about 50 feet below the current crossing. We flagged a 325 foot stretch of trail with a couple switchbacks with <12% grade. Plans, if approved, would be to move the bridge to the new lower location and to shore up the ditch with riprap and big rocks in the area of the new crossing. We then drove to Whigg Meadow and checked out a possible reroute of the BMT from the Whigg Pond to the gate on the Whigg Meadow Road. This is a route which Ken Jones had previously flagged for a possible route to get the trail mostly off the road. We are hoping this reroute can be included in the Tellico River Drainage Forest Plan which now is in process. Here are the volunteer hours:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Ken Jones

1.5

5

6.5

Dick Evans 2 5 7

Eric Eades 4 5 9

Jeff Hunter 5 5 10

Rick Harris

1

5

6

Totals

13.5

25

38.5

Total Tellico Ranger District Hours: 19.25 (half of total)
Total Cheoah Ranger District Hours: 19.25 (half of total)
Monday, May 31, 2010: BMT Section 17a - Sycamore Creek Section - Pam and Kent Mathews along with Rick & Brenda Harris brushed out the section from the Tellico River to the first switchback, about a 2 mile stretch. Much of the work was done in the rain and rumbling thunder. Plans are to return soon to finish the rest of the trail up to the Whigg Mtn Road. Here are the volunteer hours.

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Pam Mathews

2.5

3.5

6.0

Kent Mathews 4 3.5 7.5

Brenda Harris 1 4.5 5.5

Rick Harris

1

4.5

5.5

Totals

8.5

16

24.5

Tuesday, October 5, 2010: BMT Sections 17b and 17d - Sycamore Creek & Mud to Beech Gap - Kent & Pam Mathews and Rick Harris cleared the upper 2.3 miles of the Sycamore Creek section of the BMT with swingblade and brushcutters. Then Rick Harris went to the North River Road crossing of the BMT and cleared about 0.5 miles of the BMT each direction from that crossing. This section was very overgrown and Rick plans to return tomorrow to finish clearing the rest of this section from Mud Gap to Beech Gap. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Pam Mathews

1

5.5

6.5

Kent Mathews 1 5.5 6.5

Rick Harris

1.5

7.5

7

Totals

3.5

18.5

20

Wednesday, October 6, 2010: BMT Sections 17d - Mud to Beech Gap - Rick Harris cleared the BMT from Mud Gap to the North River Road. The brush was quite bad so going was pretty slow. Rick also cleared a few small trees with hand saw and 2 large trees with chain saw (both near N River Rd). Brenda helped with the shuttle. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Brenda Harris
1

0

1

Rick Harris

1

7

8

Totals

2

7

9

Thursday, October 7, 2010: BMT Sections 17d - Mud to Beech Gap - Rick Harris finished off clearing the BMT from Beech Gap to the North River Road. The brush was very bad in the small gap about halfway between these two points where the trail comes close to the Skyway. The briars were over his head and took quite a bit of work to clear out. The last time it was brushed out was late June 2009. So the briars had grown an unbelievable amount in just 15 months. Rick also cleared a few small trees with hand saw. So now the whole section from Mud Gap to Beech Gap is in great shape (except for the "Little Grand Canyon"), at least for a little while. This section has no maintainer at present. Whoever takes over this section must be willing to go up 2-3 times each summer to clear the briars from certain key spots, all of which are easy to reach by car. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris

1

3

4

Friday, October 8, 2010: BMT Section 17c - Mud Gap to Whigg Meadow - Rick & Brenda Harris brushed out this section today and also removed 4 small trees off the trail with a hand saw. While working, several day hikers passed us. The trail is getting a lot of use. Rick afterwards checked out the mini-Grand Canyon. It still yawns big and continues to get wider where the trail used to cross the drainage. The bridge is still in place downhill from the original site. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Brenda Harris
1.5

6

7.5

Rick Harris

1.5

6.5

8

Totals

3

12.5

15.5

Thursday, October 28, 2010: Sycamore Creek - We worked this past Thursday on a special fish project for Jim Herrig. The purpose of the project was to determine if fish would survive a 2 mile trip on pack animals. We loaded the fish on horses and mules at the intersection of the Bald River Road and Tellico River Road for the trip to Green Cove Pond. The fish were loaded in numbers up to 15 into oxygenated bags and packed with ice bags for cooling. All of the fish survived the trip and new ways to improve the logistics for future trips were determined. It was great to have the Forest Supervisor riding one of Leslie's horses for this trip. Bill and Laura took some great pictures of the trip that can be seen at this web address:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89761&id=1130110423&l=1253f214e3

Here are the volunteer hours for the trip:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Ken Jones

1.5

5

6.5

Tazz Reid

1

5

6

Roger Taylor

1

5

6

Jim Sirmans

1

5

6

Bill Hodge

1

5

6

Laura Hodge

1

5

6

Bobby Mitchell

1.5

5

6.5

Joanne Mitchell

1.5

5

6.5

Blue Goodson

1.5

5

6.5

Arlin Phillips

1

5

6

Totals

12

50

62

Arlin Phillips had one other volunteer with him and I did not get his name.
Saturday, April 2, 2011 - BMT Section 17d - Mud Gap to Beech Gap - On this beautiful spring day, three of us logged out this section of the BMT as part of our spring Saw-A-Thon. The trail was actually in very good shape. We threw a lot of branches and small trees off the trail and used our saw on 6 or 7 trees, two of which were quite sizable on each side of the North River Road crossing. The trail is wide open for the spring hikers. We met a scout troop from down in Georgia at Beech Gap when we were finishing up. They were heading out north with plans to camp at Cherry Log Gap tonight, then work their way down to Slickrock Creek, then up to Naked Ground then back to Beech Gap, coming back out on Tuesday. This was one of their shakedown backpacks in preparation of their trip to Philmont in New Mexico this coming summer. Volunteer hours for the day are as follows:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Steve Cartwright

2.5

4

6.5

Dick Evans 1.5 4 5.5

Rick Harris

1.5

4

5.5

Totals

5.5

12

17.5

Sunday, May 29, 2011 - BMT Section 17c - Mud Gap to Whigg Meadow - Rick Harris went out alone to check out the condition of the trail from Mud Gap to Whigg Meadow. He found it in excellent shape. There were no downed trees and the vegetation was OK. He only used loppers to clear overhanging vegetation. This section is ready for the hike by the BMTA on Sat June 4 and the Cherokee Hiking Club on Sunday June 5. Volunteer hours are below:
Rick Harris, travel time 1 hour, work time 2 hours = 3 hours total
Saturday, June 18, 2011 - BMT Section 17d - Mud Gap to Beech Gap -
Rick Harris and Steve Cartwright (section maintainer) brushed out the sections of the trail which quickly become overgrown with weeds and briars, including the quarter of a mile to each side of North River Road, the section where the trail comes close to the skyway, and the section where the trail crosses the skyway. We quit when it started to rain and hail on us.

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Steve Cartwright

3

4

7

Rick Harris

1.5

4

5.5

Totals

4.5

8

12.5

Friday, August 5, 2011 - BMT Section 17d - Sycamore Creek - Rick Harris and Ken Jones logged out the lower 2 miles of the trail up to the first switchback, removing about a dozen trees from the trail corridor. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Ken Jones

2.5

4

6.5

Rick Harris

1.0

4

5.0

Totals

3.5

8

11.5

Sunday, October 2, 2011 - BMT Section 17a-b - Sycamore Creek Section - Six of us braved the chilly temps and brushed out the upper 2/3 of this section of trail. It was a long hard day, including the long shuttle. We left 2 cars at the bottom by the Fish Hatchery and drove all of us to the top of the trail along the Whigg Meadow Road. This stretch of trail is 5.8 miles long. There were many bear and boar hunters out, so we wore orange. Pam Mathews, section maintainer, went to school with one of the hunters who had his truck parked at the upper trail head. They had not seen each other in years. With us today also were two teenagers, Chris and Lucas Beck, both of whom outlasted all of us and did a great job. We had one gas-powered brush cutter and 5 swing bladers. Also, the swing bladers carried saws and hand loppers. The work went quickly with all the help, but there was a lot of work to do. We were all very tired when we got down to the lowest switchback, where our previous work trip had ended coming up from below. We saw one copperhead, but no other dangerous animals. On the trail we did not come across any hunters or hunting dogs (or bear or boar). Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris 0.5 10 10.5

Brenda Harris 0.5 10 10.5

Pam Mathews 2 10 12

Kent Mathews 2 10 12

Christopher Beck 3 10 13

Lucan Beck 3 10 13

Totals

11

60

71

Sunday, January 29, 2011 - TN/NC BMTA Worktrip SAW-A-THON - Sections 11cd, 12a, 13de, 13e, 16b, 17a - Several groups went to various sections of the BMT to take care of specific problems, as below. The workers also filled out the Annual Walkthru Reports on the sections they covered. Afterwards, several of us met for dinner at the Mexican restaurant in Copperhill. Fahitas seemed to be the diet of the champions.

BMT Section 17a - Sycamore Creek Section (Tellico District) - Tom Smith and Rick Foster went in from the Fish Hatchery up Sycamore Creek to the first switchback to log out a complex pile of trees which came down together just short of the switchback with chainsaw. The trail otherwise was in pretty good shape. These trees we had discovered when we did the brook yrout survey of Sycamore Creek a few months ago.

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Foster 1 3 4.0

Tom Smith

1.0

3

4.0

Totals

2

6

8

Monday, April 23, 2012 - BMTA AHS VV Day 1 - BMT Sections 16e/17a - We worked on the BMT from the Tellico River Road for about a mile each direction. First we went south and did tread work and fixed two huge holes in the trail created by two trees which had fallen over the winter and took the trail tread with them. We also cleared several logs off this section. Then we went a ways up the Sycamore Creek section of the BMT, armoring some wet spots with rock. (BMTA helpers: Rick Harris, Bob Ruby, Tazz Reid, Bill Lundin, Betty Petty)

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Richard Harris

0.5
7.5
8

Bob Ruby
6
7.5 13.5

Bill Lundin 3.5 7.5 11

Tazz Reid 1 7.5 8.5

Betty Petty 5 7.5 12.5

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

16

105

121

Friday, May 25, 2012 - BMT Section 17d - Sycamore Creek - Pam and Kent Mathews brushed out the lower 2 miles of the trail up to the first switchback. Sling blades were used on both sides of the trail. There were a few small trees removed from the trail, but none that required chainsaw work. Volunteer hours are below:

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Pam Mathews 4 4 8

Kent Mathews

4

4

8

Totals

8

8

16

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2.5	5.5	8
Kent Mathews	4	5.5	9.5
Pam Mathews	4	5.5	9.5
Heath Hawkins	2	5.5	7.5
Wallace Graham	2	5.5	7.5
Preston Hawkins	2	5.5	7.5
Charlie Shields	4	5.5	9.5
Chris Shields	4	5.5	9.5
Todd Duncan	4	5.5	9.5
Zach Duncan	4	5.5	9.5
Greg Keck	4	5.5	9.5
Dalton Keck	4	5.5	9.5
Deborah Lively	4	5.5	9.5
Devin Gray	4	5.5	9.5
Jonathan Johnson	4	5.5	9.5
Brandon Morris	4	5.5	9.5
Totals	56.5	88	144.5

*Name*	*Travel Hours*	*Work Hours*	*Totals*
Ken Jones	1.5	5	6.5
Dick Evans	2	5	7
Eric Eades	4	5	9
Jeff Hunter	5	5	10
Rick Harris	1	5	6
Totals	13.5	25	38.5