By
Bob Williams
All ATA members will now be responsible for
keeping up with their own total of hours
worked on USFS lands, including the Pinhoti extension.
Anyone who needs to know his or her total, as we have it recorded, please or e-mail Carroll Wilson. Once a volunteer reaches a hundred hour milestone (100, 200, etc.), he or she should notify Carroll, and he will obtain a service chevron suitable for sewing on a daypack, hat or shirt) from the USFS.
February 21 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
March 20 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
April 17 — Pinhoti work/maint. Trip
May 15 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
June 19 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
Sept. 18 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
Oct. 16 — Pinhoti work/maint. trip
The ATA has a new address. Please change your bookmarks to reflect it.
Tell everyone you know and go there often.
With the rising cost of postage and the loss of trees, the ATA also sends out its newsletter by email. If you have an e-mail address and would be willing (or prefer) to receive your quarterly newsletter electronically, please send your e-mail address to rwwilliams@brmemc.net. The trees and the ATA budget will thank you.
Sipsey Wilderness
Crew: John Calhoun (
Joe Copeland
(Cullman)
Ted Kuzma (Moulton)
Carroll Wilson
(Jasper)
This was the first of our mid-week work trips in the Sipsey. We cleared limbs and treetops from Borden Creek to the ridge on FS 208. This trail, paralleling Braziel Creek for much of its distance, has been dubbed FS 207 by the USFS district. It was the first chilly day of the Fall. Leaves had fallen, and we were able to see the bluff lines and sidestream beds. At the end of the work day three of us went to a reception for volunteers at the district USFS office.
Work time: 20 hours
Travel time: 9 hours CW
Pinhoti Trail (
Crew: Carroll Wilson (Jasper)
Robby Bendall (
We hiked to the second peak on
Work time: 6 hours
Travel time: 14 hours CW
Sipsey Wilderness
Crew: Joe Copeland (Cullman)
Ted Kuzma (Moulton)
Carroll Wilson
(Jasper)
John and Benda
Cummings (
We cleared treetops, small logs, and limbs off the FS 203 trail from FS Road 208 to the curved bridge on Borden Creek. Pine beetles have wreaked havoc in places; we had to leave several log pine logs that can be stepped over easily enough. This is a very picturesque section of trail — especially in winter and especially the western end.
Work time: 18 hours
Travel time: 6 hours CW
Pinhoti Trail (
Crew: Jim Austin (
Philip Alexander (
Carroll Wilson
(Jasper)
Unfortunately a fire lane or firebreak had been
plowed across the trail eight or ten times from the spring in the gap between
the the two peaks to the old roadbed where the trail
coincides for about a quarter of a mile.
In some places
we had to remove logs and dig through banks of dirt in order to
re-open the trail.
Work time: 14 hours
Travel time: 11 hours
Sipsey Wilderness
Crew: Ted Kuzma
(Moulton)
Carroll Wilson
(Jasper)
We cleared a few logs and limbs off FS 200 and FS
209 from the mouth of Borden Creek to the Sipsey
Picnic Grounds. It was a cold day with rain imminent, and we were glad to
finish by
Work time: 4 hours
Travel time: 3 hours CW
By Robbie Bendall
I’ve been involved with the ATA now for almost six years. When I first arrived I was told of an attempt to build a crossing at Hurricane Creek. A lot of the old hands spoke of all of the hard work that was put in to build pilings for a bridge crossing at the intersection of the Pinhoti and the creek. They all say that it was some of the hardest trail work they did. The first time I saw the creek I really could not understand what all of the hoopla was about because the creek was really low. Not long after that, I understood. While hiking with Trailtuner, Philip Alexander, we saw the mad side of Hurricane Creek and it indeed can be nasty, dangerous and almost impassable.
Last August, Phil Alexander, Jim Austin and I walked down to the creek after a day of trail work to take a look at constructing a new bridge.
While in the Air Force I worked
as a lineman for the local TV cable company in
I returned home and on Monday I contacted the Alabama Power Foundation, seeking funding for bridge materials.
It wasn’t long before the local Alabama Power Materials Supervisor contacted me and asked if I would come by to see him, which I did.
He asked what we needed and of course I said poles, cable clamps, rope and some tools. He let us have everything we needed. What a godsend!
Soon we started a marathon of
trips between
We worked about two weekends a month for a while and had a really good time building the bridge. The fall rains soon started and we got more rain last year than in previous years. In fact, before the bridge was finished, we saw water flowing over the slats with large amounts of debris hung on the bridge. But the bridge held so we feel that it’s there to stay.
Contributing to the construction were: Alabama Power, Port City Trailer, funds from our membership, Phil Alexander and his sons, Jim Austin, Joe Copeland, Carroll Wilson, Gene Padgham, John Calhoun, Chris Sloan and Brenda Bendall. I’m sure there were others as well.
The next time you cross the Hurricane Creek bridge take a second to sign the registers placed at each end and see that we indeed have traffic on this section of trail.
Enjoy the bridge and remember that bridge building can be between the banks of a creek … or the souls of friends.