Name: Trails Day - John Muir Trail Reconstruction Project
Start: 2013-06-01T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2013-06-01T17:00:00-04:00
Location: Coker Creek Campsite on Hiwassee River

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/3/4/0/0/event_233953312.jpeg

New Additional Information from Steve Biatowas

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Vols,

This message is a reminder of the National Trails Day event
sponsored by Tennessee Wild, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, and the Ocoee/Hiwassee Ranger District on June 1st.

Please distribute to anyone that might be interested in the event.

The project will be reconstruction and dip maintenance of the John Muir Trail from the mouth of Coker Creek to Hwy 68 (see JM work area map).

Anyone coming from the direction of Tellico or north I-75 can
go directly to the work site. Those coming from the south, Cleveland/Chattanooga area, can meet at the Ranger Station at 0800 and carpool out to the site.

Meeting Time: 0900 at the dispersed camping area (junction of Coker Creek & John Muir trails)

We will hold a safety brief and then break up into working squads; 3-4 people to a squad. Each squad will have an experienced leader to assist those with little or no prior reconstruction experience.

The Coker Creek map attachment will lead you from the Ironsburg Church/Hwy 68 intersection to the parking spot. Lat/Long is also provided for GPS users –

Lat: 35.10.44.111N Long: 84.23.29.839W

If you have your own tools and wish to bring them, feel free to do so. I will bring the tools and most of the safety gear required.

Participants need to bring: gloves, long pants, work boots, water container, & lunch. If you take any medication or have allergic reactions to bee stings, make sure you bring your medication and let me know where it is located in case you cannot get to it. Bug Spray & sun lotion recommended.

We will need to hike in about 1 mile before beginning work; squads will be distributed along the trail. White flagging marks out the areas for reconstruction work; blue/white striped flagging indicates dip maintenance work.

Extra water will be carried in using 5 gallon coolers-please bring your own water bottles.

Please keep in mind that FS22 needs to remain open for emergency evacuation-parking must be well off the road. Copperhill will be the
closest emergency treatment center.

Thanks and hope to see you on the 1st. If you can’t make it, please forward this message on to someone who might be
interested.

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The following message is the origianl announcement from Steve Biatowas, Ocoee-Hiwassee Trails Tech with the USFS, Cherokee National Forest. Please consider participating and put this on your calendar now:

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Folks,

Some of you have already been contacted by Jeff Hunter of Tennessee Wild so please accept my apology for the duplication, in advance.

Jeff is working with the Ocoee-Hiwassee District to hold a National Trails Event on our District this year.

As I have been working on tread restoration of the John Muir Trail, he has agreed to support my efforts to repair and revitalize this trail since it is a National Recreation Trail and it has a direct historic connection to the famous naturalist, John Muir.

We are recruiting people who are willing to do reconstruction work; basically use of pulaskis to dig and rakes to level and smooth tread. We also need a cadre of experienced trail construction leaders to help provide guidance for new volunteers. Truly, it will be very hard to be successful without experienced trail maintainers to provide support to new maintenance crewmembers.

Section of work: J. Muir Trail #152 Coker Creek to Hwy 68
Meeting Place: For anyone coming from Chattanooga/Cleveland, meet at the Ocoee/Hiw. District Office @ 0800
From Tellico Plains/Ductown, meet directly at the camping area where John Muir intersects the Coker Creek trail (bottom of Duckett Ridge Road) @ 0900.

This message is just to let you know about the event in advance. We will send out the details when the event date gets closer.

Also, for those vols who want to participate but don’t do reconstruction work, we could still use some support doing some clearing/brushing work from the Hwy 68 side.

What I need from everyone is an idea of who wants to participate and what category of work they would like to perform (reconstruction or brushing/clearing). I need to get an idea of how many people will help out in order to have enough tools, safety gear, water, etc for the day.

Please contact Jeff Hunter at the following: C - 423-322-7866
jeff@wildsouth.org
http://tnwild.org/
https://twitter.com/#!/Tennessee_Wild
http://www.facebook.com/TennesseeWild
http://www.meetup.com/Tennessee-Wild/

or

Steve Biatowas at sbiatowas@fs.fed.us or (423)338-3328 M-TH 0700-1730

Thanks for your support. Hope to see you out on the trails.

Steve

Richard Harris

Cherokee Hiking Club of Southeast Tennessee

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