Bald River Trail

The Bald River Trail (FS Trail 88) is a 5.6 mile hiking trail through the Bald River Gorge Wilderness of the Cherokee National Forest in the Tellico Ranger District. This is a beautiful trail which starts at Bald River Falls where the Bald River empties into the Tellico River and parallels the river to the Bald River Road, FS Road 126. The river plunges about 500 feet along its 5 mile or so course through the rocky steep-walled gorge. There are several falls along the route and several nice campsites. Hikers, backpackers, trout fishermen and plunge pool swimmers frequent this trail, especially in the warm summer months.

Robert Thomas and Ken Jones worked on logging out blowdowns on the Bald River Trail. They went in the Cowcamp Trail, and then turned upstream to the first blowdown near PaPaw Branch. They sawed and chopped a total of 9 blowdowns for the day. Two of these were large pines that were down across the trail. They left the big hemlock that they previously cut steps in to allow people to cross. The root ball of this tree will probably block the trail when cut, so they need to carefully plan any removal. With the exception of this one tree that is easy to cross, the entire length of the Bald River Trail is clear of any blowdowns.

Volunteer Hours = 6