Warriors Passage Trail

The Warriors Passage Trail is an 6.2 mile long National Recreational Trail in the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest which runs from Waucheesi Bald down to the Bald River Road and Wildcat Road, then crosses Wildcat Creek and up to Old Furnace Road. The trail was originally designed and constructed by Boy Scouts from the Knoxville area. The trail is now maintained by the Tellico Ranger District. A series of fires destroyed sections of the route in the late 90s. Over 250 volunteer hours have gone into reopening this trail through the burned out area of the forest, which continues to recover with wildflowers and young trees. The route follows roughly an old Cherokee Indian footpath across the mountains.

Monday, June 2, 2008: Ken Jones spent Monday with the weedeater, brushing out the closed portion of Warriors Passage Trail. He began at the trailhead on the Bald River Road, working up toward Mule Pen Gap. He brushed out about ½ mile of the segment. He ran out of gas for the weedeater in the early afternoon, so he continued walking toward Mule Pen Gap to see the trail condition. Within about 50’ of where he stopped, he found that someone had recently brushed out the trail coming down from Mule Pen Gap. It wasn’t brushed out to standards, but it will certainly help on future trips. H believes that we can possibly complete this segment (Bald River Road to Mule Pen Gap) with one more day with the weedeater and one day with the chainsaw. That will let us open the trail back up to Mule Pen Gap, then route hikers on the old Bald River Road until we get the segment to Waucheesi Road back open.

When h got back to the truck, Ken decided to walk the trail in the other direction toward Wildcat Creek. This portion of the trail starts out through the dead pine area, and only one snag remained with a blaze on it. He managed to follow the trail on the way uphill, but lost it coming back down. We need to brush out this area this summer to ensure that we don’t loose the trail entirely.

Volunteer time = 8 hours

Monday, June 9, 2008: We continued our work yesterday on the Warriors Passage Trail segment from the Bald River Road to Mule Pen Gap. Matt Henry logged out the entire segment of 1.3 miles. Rick and I ran the weedeaters to brush out the remaining ¾ miles of the segment. This segment of the Warriors Passage Trail has now been brought back to Forest Service standards. With the completion of this work, this portion of the trail can now be re-opened to Mule Pen Gap. We can post a sign in the gap to notify users that they can walk the old Bald River Road (a gated road recently maintained for a wildfire) to Basin Gap. The remaining segment of the trail from Mule Pen Gap to the Waucheesi Lookout Road (1.5 miles) will require a tremendous amount of work to re-open.

We met a man on the trail yesterday, Philip Gooch, who had been working on maintaining this Warriors Passage Trail segment. He lives just above trail, and we will work on recruiting him on a volunteer agreement for future trail work.

Here is our volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	4.5	6.5
Rick Harris	1.5	4.5	6
Totals	3.5	9	12.5

Monday, June 16, 2008: Matt Henry, two volunteers, and I continued working on the Warriors Passage Trail on Monday. We drove into Mule Pen Gap and started on the segment toward the Bald River Road. This was the segment that had a wildfire last week. We worked on rehabilitation of the trail along a dozer line that was used to control the fire. Greg had done a great job in minimizing the impact to the trail with the dozer, so we only had a little work to get the trail back in good shape. We dug about 20 feet of new tread, chopped out some roots, and cut about a half dozen water turnouts in the effected part of the trail. We will go back in at a later date and seed all of the fire lines.

After lunch, we went back to Mule Pen Gap and started log out work on the trail segment headed up toward Waucheesi. This is the portion of the trail that is full of dead pines. We sawed out another ¼ mile of the trail, and our two other volunteers worked on brushing out with loppers. The first ½ mile of the trail going in from Mule Pen Gap has now been logged out and is passable.

Here is our volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	6	8
Philip Gooch	0	6	6
Gordon Spratt	0	6	6
Totals	2	18	20

Monday, June 23, 2008: We continued working yesterday on the upper portion of the Warriors Passage Trail. I ran the chainsaw logging out, while the other volunteers worked up ahead on brushing out a path. I would estimate that we cleared about another 1000’ of the trail for the day. We are now into the worst part of the trail with dead pines piled on top of one another, and brush underneath so thick you can’t walk through. Even with the flagging that Robert, Josh, and I did last year, there were places where it took a lot of time to find the old trail amongst the old fire lines. We found one spot where we probably flagged the wrong location, but you physically can’t get through to find a switchback on the old trail without a lot of work. We will just have to take our time, and do our best to cut the trail into an acceptable location.

I started the day by unlocking the post at Doc Rogers Fields so that Kenneth Dalton could mow the accessible parts of the trails there with his tractor. He was going to lock the post back when he finished. At the end of the day, I brought the hoses back to the Ranger Station from the site of the Tree Fire at Philip Gooch’s house.

Here is our volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	6.5	8.5
Philip Gooch	0	6.5	6.5
Lee Gooch	0	6.5	6.5
Todd Gooch	0	6.5	6.5
Totals	2	26	28

Monday, July 14, 2008: We continued work on brushing out the Warriors Passage Trail yesterday. I started the day with the intention of taking care of signage to open the trail segment from the Bald River Road to Mule Pen Gap. I put up new signs at the Waucheesi Lookout Road and at Mule Pen Gap. These signs direct people to use the old Bald River Road between Basin Gap and Mule Pen Gap. This will be the temporary trail only until we complete work on the bad trail segment. I intended to take the metal sign down, but got stung by yellow jackets while trying to jack the post out of the ground. They have a nest nearby, and I could not get the post down without incurring their wrath. It may just have to stand until a cold morning.

I worked the rest of the day brushing out the trail, starting at the Bald River Road and working toward Wildcat. I was able to complete about ¼ mile up the hill to the point where the trail enters the woods again. This portion was nothing but sunshine and no canopy cover since all of the dead pines came down. There was only one blaze left on a standing tree, so I was concerned that we would loose the original trail route entirely due to the new growth. A fire crew had sawed out the trail about 3 years ago, so I was just able to follow the cut trees to determine the original route. This segment was all pines, but is recovering well with lots of hardwoods in new growth.

Philip Gooch and his sons worked with loppers on brushing out the closed segment of the trail from Waucheesi Road to Mule Pen Gap. This work will be a real help when we get back in with chainsaws.

Here is the volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	6	8
Philip Gooch	0	5	5
Todd Gooch	0	2.5	2.5
Lee Gooch	0	2.5	2.5
Totals	2	16	18

Thursday, September 18, 2008: Yesterday’s work trip was a milestone event for the Tellico District Trails Program. We completed work to open up the upper portion of the Warriors Passage Trail that had been closed and impassable for a number of years. We parked at Mule Pen Gap, and hiked in about ½ mile to the point where we needed to start work. We had three sawyers working on logging out the trail, and four other volunteers working to clear the trail. We logged out 1 mile of trail, and completed clearing the trail to the Waucheesi Tower Road. This part of the trail has not been brushed out to standards, but is certainly an easy walk for any hiker. At the end of the trip, I removed the signs on each end that stated that the trail was closed.

I am especially grateful and proud of the three Southern Appalachian Backcountry Horsemen who helped with this work trip. They were out there working on a hiking trail that they will never be able to ride, just to make a trail better for someone else. This kind of service attitude embodies the very best of the volunteer spirit.

Here are our volunteer hours for the trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	6	8
Tazz Reid	2	6	8
Bobby Mitchell	2.5	6	8.5
Joann Mitchell	2.5	6	8.5
Phillip Gooch	0	6	6
Mike Jellies	0	6	6
Mike Coyl	0	6	6
Totals	9	42	51

Friday, November 7, 2008: Robert Thomas and several volunteers worked on brushing out the Warriors Passage Trail today. We started at Mule Pen Gap and worked our way uphill toward the Waucheesi Tower Road with weedeaters and loppers. We completed about a mile of trail before the rain started about 1 pm. This work included the worst part of the trail through the dead pine, burned out area. We intend to continue working to maintain the entire trail to standards and put it back in good shape.

Here is our volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	4.5	6.5
Clayton Pannell	2	4.5	6.5
Phillip Gooch	0	4.5	4.5
Totals	4	13.5	17.5

Wednesday, November 19, 2008: Robert Thomas and I continued work on brushing out the Warriors Passage Trail yesterday. We started work at the Waucheesi Lookout Road and brushed out the trail to the Wildcat Road, a distance of about 3 ¼ miles. There was only about ¾ mile of this distance that had not been brushed out in the past year. On this previously brushed out portion, we just had to do touch up work to maintain to standards. Between the Bald River Road and the Wildcat Road there are a handful of trees that need to be cleared on the next trip. There is one new tree down across the trail near Mule Pen Gap.The trail needs to be dug in again at the Wildcat Road where the road grader has pushed the road bank over the trail.

Here is my time for the day:

Travel Hours = 2.5 Work Hours = 5 Total = 7.5 hours

Friday, November 21, 2008: Robert Thomas continued working with us on the Warriors Passage Trail yesterday. We drove to the Wildcat Road crossing point and then re-dug in the trail into the side of the road bank. Phillip Gooch joined us, and Robert started brushing out toward Wildcat Creek, while we started logging out the few trees toward the Bald River Road. After finishing those trees, we started in behind Robert to log out the rest of the trail. Robert finished brushing out the remainder of the trail all the way to the Old Furnace Road. I logged out about a dozen and a half trees, leaving 3 remaining trees in the ½ mile nearest the Old Furnace Road due to hitting a rock with the chainsaw.

Work remaining to bring the entire trail back to standards is to clear the 3 trees and re-paint all of the blazes on the trail.

Here is the volunteer time for the trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	5.5	7.5
Phillip Gooch	0.5	3.5	4
Totals	2.5	9	11.5

Friday, December 5, 2008: Robert Thomas and I did some finishing work on Warriors Passage last Friday. We sawed the last remaining blowdowns (4 trees) from the trail in the first ½ mile in from the Lyons Creek Road. This completes logging out work for the entire trail. The only remaining work to return the trail to standards is to re-paint the blazes. We are going to need some warmer weather to finish this work. We spent some additional time working on chainsaws in the shop.

Here is my time for the day:

Travel Hours = 1.5 Work Hours = 4 Total = 5.5 hours

Wednesday, December 31, 2008: We spent New Year’s Eve clearing some recent blowdowns on the Warriors Passage Trail. We started from the Waucheesi Tower Road and worked our way back to the Wildcat Road. We cleared about two dozen trees that had come down in a recent storm. We will get a report from Rick’s wife and son, who hiked the trail that day, concerning the condition of the trail from the Wildcat Road to the Old Furnace Road.

Here is our volunteer time for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	5.5	7.5
Rick Harris	1.5	5.5	7
Phillip Gooch	.5	5.5	6
Totals	4	16.5	20.5

Friday, April 3, 2009: Ken Jones and Rick Harris logged out the Warrior's Passage Trail today from the Waucheesi Firetower Road to Wildcat Creek Road, logging out 12 trees. We also cleared one tree which was blocking Bald River Road on the way in. We were going to paint blazes today, but the rain changed our mind on this. Rick plans to go back in a few days with better weather and log out the section from Wildcat Road to Old Furnace Road. Ken will make arrangements later to paint the blazes on a dry day.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	2	3.5	5.5
Rick Harris	1	3.5	4.5
Totals	3	7	10

Sunday, April 5, 2009: David Harris and Rick Harris logged out the Warrior's Passage Trail today from the Wildcat Creek Road to the Old Furnace Road, logging out 16 trees. Also coming along for company were David's wife Amanda and their toddler Benton along with my dog Jake and David's dog Bonny. We will make arrangements later to repaint the blazes. Once that is done, the trail will be completely up to code. It is very obvious that people are hiking this trail with a well worn tread.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Harris	1.5	3.5	5.0
David Harris	1.5	3.5	5.0
Totals	3	7	10

Wednesday, April 8, 2009: Rick Harris went to the west end of the trail at Old Furnace Road and hiked down the trail about a mile to replant an old trail post and to pick up and backpack out an old sleeping bag, tent and coat which had been dumped along the side of the trail.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Harris	0.5	2.0	2.5
Totals	0.5	2.0	2.5

Tuesday, April 28, 2009: We worked yesterday on repainting the blazes for the Warriors Passage Trail. This trail had been previously logged out and brushed out during this fiscal year. We had enough workers that we split into two crews, with one crew starting from the Waucheesi Road and the other starting from the Old Furnace Road. We met at the point where the trail crosses the Wildcat Road shortly after lunch. With the completion of the rework of the blazing, I believe that this trail has been maintained to Forest Service standards. After lunch we still had time to remove the large pine tree from the trail that had recently come down at the Wildcat Road crossing point. This tree created a mess that took about an hour of saw work to clean up. The entire trail is once again free of any blowdowns.

Here are the volunteer hours for this work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	5.5	7
Bobby Mitchell	1.5	5.5	7
Rick Harris	1	5.5	6.5
Ed Ley	3	5.5	8.5
Totals	7	22	29

Monday, May 4, 2009: I worked yesterday taking care of some small items on Warriors Passage Trail. I installed two carsonite posts with decals, one on the east side of the Wildcat Road crossing, and the other at Mule Pen Gap. I also installed a locust log step and re-graded the trail where we cleared the large pine tree blowdown at the Wildcat Road crossing. I understand that a contractor will be removing this pine tree in the future. I will check back when the tree is gone to see if any additional work is needed.

Here is my volunteer time for the day:

Travel Hours = 1.5 Work Hours = 3 Total = 4.5

Monday, September 28, 2009: Warriors Passage Trail. We spent some time working again on Warriors Passage Trail yesterday. The entire trail was considered Maintained to Standards at the end of April when we completed refreshing all of the blazes. Starting at the upper trailhead on the Waucheesi Lookout Road, the trail was brushed out to a point about ¼ mile beyond the Wildcat Road crossing, for a total of about 3 miles. The portion that still has one season of growth is about 2 miles in length and crosses the Wildcat Creek to the trailhead on the Old Furnace Road. We logged out 8 trees on the segment from Waucheesi Road to the Bald River Road. There remain a total of 6 small trees on the trail segment from the Bald River Road to the Wildcat Road. I have credited Philip Gooch with 2 extra hours of volunteer time for previous brush out work near Mule Pen Gap.

Here are the volunteer hours for the work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	6.5	8
Rick Harris	1	6.5	7.5
Philip Gooch	0.5	8.5	9
Totals	3	21.5	24.5

October 14, 2009: We continued working on the Warriors Passage Trail yesterday. It was great to have Brian Matoy working with us in some rainy weather. We started brushing out the trail at the Wildcat Road and worked our way to the end of the trail on the Old Furnace Road. This completes the recent brushing out of the entire length of the trail. I also sawed 6 small trees off the section of the trail between the Bald River Road and Wildcat Road. There are 8 trees across the trail remaining in the section from Wildcat Road to the Old Furnace Road. One of these 8 trees is a leaner across two segments of the trail at a switchback and is about 24” in diameter. We plan to clear these remaining trees on a work trip scheduled for next Tuesday.

Here are our volunteer hours for this work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	6	7.5
Carey McHugh	1.5	6	7.5
Blue Goodsen	1.5	6	7.5
Totals	4.5	18	22.5

Tuesday, October 20, 2009: Warriors Passage Trail. We completed some finishing touches on the Warriors Passage Trail today. We started hiking the trail from the upper trailhead on the Waucheesi Tower Road. Between Mule Pen Gap and the Bald River Road, we removed a number of stubs from the lower side of the trail. These may have been installed to anchor cribbing for a planned tread restoration, but had become a real tripping hazard. We sawed 7 trees from the trail between the Wildcat Road and the Old Furnace Road. I believe that this completes maintenance for the entire trail and it can now be considered as Maintained to Forest Service Standards.

Here are our volunteer hours for this work trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	6	7.5
Rick Harris	1	6	7
Totals	2.5	12	14.5

Sunday, April 4, 2010 - Warriors Passage Trail - Bob Ruby, Sandi Still and Rick Harris hiked down the Warriors Passage Trail to scout out a route for a planned Labor Day Backpack trip, but on the way did light maintenance work throwing off limbs and cutting small logs off the trail and identified the number and location of the 30+ logs which will need to be removed with chainsaw on a later trip. Volunteer hours are as follows (no travel time since part of a trip to scout out a backpack route.

Name

Travel Hours

Work Hours

Totals

Rick Harris

0

5

5

Bob Ruby

0

5

5

Sandi Still

0

5

5

Totals

0

15

15

Thursday, May 13, 2010: Warriors Passage - We logged out 27 trees with the chainsaws from Wauchesi Road to the first crossing of Smithfield Road, (just after the Tobe Creek crossing).

Bobby Mitchell= 5 work hours + 1.5 travel for a total of 6.5 hours.
Tazz Reid= 5 hours work + 1 hour travel for a total of 6 hours.
Phillip Googe= 5 hours work + .5 travel for a total of 5.5 hours.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010: Warriors Passage - a crew of 5 (including 2 USFS employees) cleared about 20 trees off the trail from Bald River Road to Old Furnace Road and did brushing out as well. Volunteer hours for the day:

Bill Hodge - 5 work hours - 1 hour driving
Rick Harris - 5 work hours - 40 minutes driving
Roger Taylor - 5 work Hours - 1 hour driving

Thursday, May 27, 2010: Warriors Passage - Rick Harris returned to the Wildcat Road Crossing to use his brushcutter to clear the trail from Wildcat Road to Bald River Road. He also cleared across both road crossings for a short ways. Then he went to where the trail leaves the Waucheesi Firetower Road and likewise cleared down the trail a ways. He then drove to the bald itself and cleaned out the campsite area of trash. This trail is now back to USFS standards. Volunteer hours for the day:

Rick Harris = 4 work hours, 1 travel hour = 5 hours total

Tuesday, August 3, 2010: Warriors Passage NRT - We started the day by taking care of a little saw job. We also walked a section of the Benton MacKaye Trail near Sixmile Gap to look for the rare plant, the Ash-leaved Bush-pea. We found about a dozen plants that were still surviving right in the treadway. The pea pods had already turned brown and gone to seed. We then brushed out the section of Warriors Passage Trail from the Bald River Road to the Wildcat Road. I believe that this was the second time that it had been brushed out this growing season. The part through the burned out area is growing a lot of grass which is good news for future maintenance. Here are our volunteer hours for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	5	6.5
Tazz Reid	1	5	6
Totals	2.5	10	12.5

Wednesday, October 6, 2010: Warriors Passage Trail - Phil Gooch worked 5 hours clearing this trail of brush and small trees from the Waucheesi Tower Road down to his house just past Hogpen Gap. Volunteer hours as as follows:

Phil Gooch: travel time 1 hours, work time 5 hours = 6 hours total

Thursday, December 30, 2010: Warriors Passage Trail - We worked today on checking and logging out portions of the Warriors Passage Trail. We logged out the trail from the Bald River Road crossing to Wildcat Creek. We only had to saw a handful of trees, and actually had to cut more trees off the Wildcat Road just to get to the trailhead. Here are our volunteer hours for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	4.5	6
Bobby Mitchell	1.5	4.5	6
Tazz Reid	1	4.5	5.5
Totals	4	13.5	17.5

Thursday, January 6, 2011: Warriors Passage Trail - We started off the day with breakfast and the safety meeting. Tom Speaks awarded Tazz the second annual Ken Jones Trail Award. Following the meeting, we drove to Mule Pen Gap and worked two directions from that point to log out blow downs. The trail is now clear of blow downs from the Waucheesi Tower Road to the Wildcat Creek crossing. We also did some lopping of the low hanging branches that were loaded with ice. Here are the hours for the day:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	6	7.5
Rick Harris	1	6	7
Jim Sirmans	.5	6	6.5
Philip Gooch	.5	6	6.5
Bobby Mitchell	1.5	6	7.5
Tazz Reid	1	6	7
Bill Hodge	1	2	3
Totals	7	38	45

Thursday, April 21, 2011 - Warriors Passage Trail - We worked with a great group of students from Senoma State today on the Warriors Passage Trail. The day began with our District Ranger, Katherine Foster, giving a welcome and orientation talk. We followed up with a safety briefing concerning the work for the day. We began work at the point where the trail crosses Tobe Creek and leaves the old road bed to climb up toward Mulepen Gap. Our objective was to re-grade and widen the tread that had filled in over the years. At the end of the work day I estimated that we had completed about 850' of tread. There is work remaining for the future, but we certainly made hiking the trail a more pleasant experience for everyone that comes along on this section. Some of our regular volunteers served as crew leaders and made this work trip a real success. As always, we certainly appreciate Ed and Arleen Decker sponsoring these service projects that help so many others. Thanks go out to everyone involved in this effort for a safe and productive day. Here are the volunteer hours for this trip:

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Ken Jones	1.5	6	7.5
Bobby Mitchell	1.5	6	7.5
Joanne Mitchell	1.5	6	7.5
Rick Harris	1	6	7
Tazz Reid	1	6	7
Ed Decker	2	6	8
Senoma State (24 students)	48	144	192
Totals	56.5	180	236.5

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - Warriors Passage Trail - I and my dog Jake hiked from Wildcat Road down to Wildcat Creek on the Warriors Passage Trail and ended up doing light maintenance on the way. I threw off numerous small trees and branches from the trail and counted 25 trees which will require a chains saw. This is just a short ~2 mile section of the trail.

Name	Travel Hours	Work Hours	Totals
Rick Harris	1	2	3