Cherokee Hiking Club
198 Crews Drive, Benton, TN 37307

Trail Maintenance
Unicoi Turnpike Trail & Other Local Trails

Thursday, February 5, 2009
July 14, 2009
July 20-Aug 4, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Monday, May 9, 2011
Monday, July 2, 2012
 

February 5, 2009: We decided to clear all of the blowdowns from the Unicoi Turnpike Trail yesterday. We started from Unicoi Gap and worked our way down to the CCC camp, found no blowdowns on the spur trail to the grave site, then continued on to the end of the trail on Joe Brown Highway. Jim cleared 11 blowdowns for the day. The rest of us worked on brushing out and re-grading the road transitions in the steep cut bank areas with the 6” x 6” timber cribbing. 

I cleared the ½ mile segment along Coker Creek last October, so the entire trail should be in good shape for the upcoming hiking season. 

Here are our volunteer hours for the day: 

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	3	5
Tazz Reid	1.5	3	4.5
Jim Holland	2	3	5
Ed Ley	3	3	6
Totals	8.5	12	20.5

 

July 14, 2009: Coker Creek Falls Trail. Four Coker Creek Ruritan/Heritage Group members cleaned up the FS road and picnic/parking area at Coker Creek Falls. Some trees had blown down on and onto the road and the picnic/parking area had been trashed. While there, they weeded and brush trimmed the upper trail to the Falls.

 

July 20, 2009: Unicoi Turnpike Trail. Five locals, all members of the two Community Groups including one also a member of the Cherokee Hiking Club, weeded and brush cut the 3+ mile Unicoi Turnpike Trail from Unicoi Gap down to the lower trail head on Joe Brown Hwy and the short trail from Joe Brown Hwy to the CCC Camp and Civil War grave site. The following day, July 21, FS' Greg Kirkland joined four from the previous day to chain saw and remove the blown down trees on those trails and a few leaners. The next week, July 29, one member bush hogged the Doc Rogers Loop and the following week, August 4, four weeded the foot trail and ingress road from Joe Brown Hwy. A barrier post that had been vandalized at the CCC Camp Trail parking area on Joe Brown Hwy, was also replaced.

 

Thanks to both Community Groups, the road and trail to Coker Creek Falls, the Unicoi Tpk and CCC Camp Trails, and the Doc Rogers Loop are now in excellent condition for hikers to enjoy while visiting Coker Creek, TN.

Sunday, Nov 29, 2009: Unicoi Turnpike Trail. Rick Harris and Marc Bernatti logged out the entire trail, removing 10 trees in total from the trail. Volunteer hours are below:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Marc Bernatti	0.5	2.5	3
Rick Harris	1.5	2.5	4
Totals	2	5	7

Thursday, September 9, 2010: Unicoi Turnpike Trail - Marc Bernatti and 4 others of the Coker Creek Ruritans logged and brushed out this trail in anticipation of a Cherokee Hiking Club this coming Sunday. Volunteer hours are below:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Marc Bernatti	1	2	3
Ken Dalton	1	2	3
Gary Long	1	2	3
Rick Pease	1	2	3
Richard Warren	1	2	3
Totals	5	10	15

Tuesday, September 14, 2010: Unicoi Turnpike Trail - Bill Hodge cut out some snags at the lower trailhead in the parking area. Volunteer hours were My hours were 15 minutes driving time, 1 hour work time, total 1.25 hours.

Saturday, December 4, 2010: Unicoi Turnpike Trail - Four scouts and two adult leaders from Boy Scout Troop 797 in Atlanta joined four of our local maintainers to work on the Unicoi Turnpike Trail as part of their requirements for the 50-Miler Award. The group split up into two smaller groups, one went in from the top and one from the bottom. Five trees were removed and lots of brush was cleared. The two groups met at the old CCC camp, where Marc Bernatti filled them in on the local history of the trail. 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
Marc Bernatti	1	2.5	3.5
Ken Dalton	1	2.5	3.5
Bill Geisler	1	2.5	3.5
Rick Pease	1	2.5	3.5
2 Adult + 4 Scouts	0	15	15
Totals	4	25	29

Monday, May 9, 2011 - Unicoi Turnpike Trail and Coker Creek Falls Trail - Two members of the Coker Creek Ruritan Club cleaned up (weeded and policed) the Unicoi Tpk trail trailheads and walked the upper portion from Unicoi Gap to the CCC camp and out to Hwy 68. That portion of the trail is clear. They cleared the road into Coker Creek Falls parking lot and stacked the cut up as firewood for campers. Then, they weeded and policed up the parking area picnic area there. Rick Pease and Ron Eishman put in 5 volunteer hours each. Count 2 hours for driving and 8 hours working. You split up what you want for each District. Next, we'll take a look at what the lower portion of the Unicoi Gap Tpk trail looks like, what the loop at Doc Rogers Field needs doing, and work the Coker Creek Falls trail top to bottom.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Pease	1	4	5
Ron Eishman	1	4	5
Totals	2	8	10

 Note: 2.5 hours for each for each district (Tellico and Ocoee/Hiwassee)

Monday, July 2, 2012 - Unicoi Turnpike Trail - Rick Pease worked on the upper section of this trail cutting branches and shrubs encroaching on the trail and removing a number of small dead trees that had fallen across the tread.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Pease	1	1.5	2.5

Monday, February 18, 2013 - Unicoi Turnpike Trail - as reported by Marc Bernatti. -- Six of us did trail maintenance on the Unicoi Turnpike Trail on Monday. We split up and three went in from both ends and came back out on Joe Brown at the middle parking area. We cut a few trees off the "Yellow" blaze spur up to the Grave site and coming back out to the parking area. Your 20 some reported downed trees had grown substantially in number as the result of two serious storms since your hike. We cut off nearly 50; some as big as 1.5' in diameter, but mostly the 4-8" size. We also cleared off the bigger fallen branches, but didn't 'sweep' the trail. So, tomorrow's hikers may still have to watch their step. Also, last night there was some serious wind up here which may have dropped new trail obstructions. We'd heard there were some trees or a tree across the Doc Rogers Loop Trail, but couldn't get any specific information and didn't have time to go looking. If you know anything about that, let us know. Next week we are tentatively scheduling a work trip to 'finish' clearing the Coker Creek Falls Trail.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Marc Bernatti	1.5	3	4.5
Bill Geiszler	1.5	3	4.5
Glen Lintenmuth	1.5	3	4.5
Gary Long	1.5	3	4.5
Tom Felton	1.5	3	4.5
Rick Pease	1.5	3	4.5
Totals	9	18	27

Monday, January 20, 2014 - Unicoi Turnpike Trail - Members of the Coker Creek Ruritan Club cleaned up the Unicoi Gap parking area and walked the 1^st two upper segments of that Trail clearing off brush and small limbs. The 2nd segment still needs to have two trees removed. Both are ‘down’ and laying overhead.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Pease	1	2	3
Ron Eshman	1	2	3
Ron Powers	1	2	3
totals	3	6	9

 

 

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