08/29/2026
Wow! What a week! Figured I’d save it all for one big post.
Sunday I started at Spivey Gap with loppers and the line trimmer following up the work of Joe, Randy and John from the previous Thursday Work Crew event. Made it about .8 with the line trimmer. A lot more work to do with the loppers to get this section back to where the rhododendron are well back from the trail.
Wednesday, back to the Spivey area but this time went in at Devils Creek Gap and worked sobo with the line trimmer. Cleared out the area that needs about 100’ of rehab that we worked on later in the week. Once again, a lot of rhodi encroachment needs to be cut back dramatically.
Wednesday Randy had a blow down mess near Watauga Lake that needed attention and after catching a quick lunch in town, we headed to Low Gap with the line trimmers and the “little screamer”. We cleared w**ds and brush for .3 up to the where it lessened up under the cover of the tree line. Also cleared out 2 blow downs. One was a SO/12-14. The other was just a SO/16-6
We then blue blazed the water source from the trail through the small tent site.
Thursday! Work Crew Day! Joe, Randy, Tim, Ed, Adam, Richard and myself proceeded to Devils Creek Gap and started in sobo. Several guys began to work on the first root ball .2 south of the gap. The rest of us continued on to the location where a large section of trail was damaged with several blowdowns all in the OTG20+ category. Over 100’ of trail was rehabbed in this location alone.
Another crew consisting of Van, Dan, Jim & Carl went to Martin Creek and hiked in to Curley Maple Shelter to repair tread way destruction caused by a downed tree (root ball) and
cut back encroaching rhodies.
Dan and Jim assumed w**d eating duties with Carl and Van going after the root ball repair and modest cutting back of rhodies while clearing two small blow downs on upper section of trail.
A hotter than expected day but all objectives were achieved.
Two reported blow downs were identified for future removal.
Thank you to Carrie Hovey for meeting the boys at the USA Raft trailhead with a cooler filled with cold sliced watermelon and oranges. ❤️
Friday. The weeks not over yet! After seeing a comment on FarOut from a hiker who was unable to location the water source after searching for “20 minutes” (🤔) I drove to the landing at the top of Low Gap Rd and w**d wacked my way in on our access trail. Cleaned the pipe out a bit then worked my way up to the AT. Worked north from there for .3, almost to the actual Cherry Gap. Also w**d wacked the tent site area. Blue reflective blazes were placed indicating the route down to the piped spring.
I think that’s a wrap folks! Have a great weekend!
