Quarry Access Trip

Saturday, August 17th
A successful trail workday brought 24 workers onto the trail near the Jenkins limestone quarry. And of course the big contributor was UPike Medical School with 20 student volunteers. A group led by team leader Peter Sheesley pushed northeast toward Birch Knob and got as far as Big Lick Gap. Shad Baker led his team by brushing and marking trail to the southeast to Bryant Gap. Robert Helvey led a team from Pound Gap northeast to Tucker Gap.

May Blitz

Our Saturday, May 4th, Birch Knob workday, was a tremendous success. Between UPike's medical students and the Friends of the Trail, we had 21 persons assisting with maintenance and construction of the trail and the shelter at Birch Knob. The hard-working willing hands of the students drove the progress on several projects, all in one days time.
Several Eastern Redbud saplings were planted at the shelter site and the parking area, thanks to Mike Titus.

Paul Hopkins brought the bear pole and assisted in its installation at the proper distance away from the shelter.

Steve, Teddy and Chad attached the porch roof to the shelter to give it a finished look.

Kenny provided a 'Welcome' sign, and i'm sure he has a story about it....if you ask.

Peter Sheesley reports the first 4 miles of trail from Birch Knob towards the Russell Fork trailhead have been cleared except for a few larger trees that will require a chainsaw.  The green blazes and markers extend out only 3.5 miles. And coming from the Russell Fork trailhead, the first 7 miles are cleared and marked, except for a half- mile section of trail that connects the ATV path with the gas-line road. This leaves maybe a mile and half that have not been recently examined. 

Robert Helvey and crew attached a NO LITTERING sign to the kiosk and built a fire-ring near the parking lot, picked up trash and cleared trail south from Mullins Pond as far as Bob Gap.

Brett Bentley, looking for sunrise pictures from the Observation Deck, had success, and then helped with trash removal from the parking lot. He finished up doing trail maintenance in the Jenny Falls area. 

Many thanks to UPike med students, Ryan Johnson, Lauren Nugent, William Tucker, Andrea McCullen, Molly Peverada, Patrick Bryant, Chris Hendrickson, Peter Sheesley, and Jessica Collins. With an assist from Chad Parsons and the Friends of the Trail, Paul Hopkins, Joel Worth, Steve Thacker, Teddy Tibbs, Robert Helvey, Mike Titus, Carol Schmidt, Sherry Tibbs, Kenny Mullins, Brett Bentley, and myself.

And the Pine Mountain Trail Conference finished out Saturday evening with the old-fashioned story telling at Killing Rock of the massacre by the 'Red Fox of the Mountains', as told by Pam Holcomb, Past President of the Kentucky Storytellers Association. 

May Blitz indeed!

Spring at last

The National Park Service reopened access to Birch Knob on the 23rd of March, and we were able to return and assess how the shelter held up through the winter. Happy to report no problems of any kind. Unfortunately the trail itself had moderate damage from blow-downs. Our crew of seven trailed out a few miles to Blowing Rock removing trees and obstructions. Judging from the damage to the Laurel thickets, there must have been several heavy snowfalls over the winter.

Finally

 And now the back gable end wall gets some structural parts and all we need is some more board and batten siding and it will be all closed up.

Sunday brought more progress on the Birch Knob Shelter. The front gable end wall got finished....only the back end wall is left to be done.

The Pine Mountain Trail southwest from the new Birch Knob Shelter got some maintenance work on Saturday, December 1st. A crew re-blazed out to Big Lick Gap, clearing up some areas of confusion, mainly around Cantrell Gap. Some time was spent looking for a suitable spring site near Grassy Gap. Not much left of an early home site except for foundation stone and and the odd piece of metal.

Another gap nearby had piled fieldstone breastworks, likely constructed by Confederate forces prior to being overrun by troops under future US President James A. Garfield in 1862.