Big Fodderstack Mountain

The Fodderstack Trail runs 12.5 miles from Farr Gap to Beech Gap in the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest and is in the Citico Creek Wilderness, a bear refuge. The naughty bears are brought to this area from the Smokies. Also, many wild boar frequent this area. This trail follows a ridge top at 4000 to 4500 feet elevation over several mountain tops (Big Fodderstack, Little Fodderstack, Chestnut Knob, and Rockstack. This trail is part of the Benton MacKaye Trail (FS Trail 2) and also is designated as FS Trail 95. Several great views and big campsites are along the trail, though water is infrequent due to its ridgetop location. Horses are allowed on this trail.

February 28, 2008: Tazz Reid and Ken Jones worked on clearing a big tree on Big Fodderstack. They hiked up the Mill Branch Trail to Fodderstack, then turned south and hiked to the tree location, about 0.2 miles south of the Pine Ridge Trail intersection. By the time they reached the tree, they were hiking in about 8" of snow. They had both fallen so many times they lost count, and their gloves were wet, leading to really cold fingers. The tree turned out to be an oblong shape where they had to saw (30" x 18"). They used 3 wedges and were able to saw it from the top down all the way through. They placed a skid pole underneath before they made the second cut, but the large piece slid off and blocked the trail. With the bad footing and running out of time, they were forced to abandon it. There is plenty of room for hikers to get through, but it still poses a problem for the horse riders. They plan to go back this next Thursday to remove the piece, and clear some more blowdowns on Section 18b.

Jim Holland 10

Rick Harris, Ken Jones, and Tazz Reid

April 3, 2008:

Four of us continued work on logging out Fodderstack Trail yesterday. We hiked in from Farr Gap to the Crowder Place to begin work for the day. We had one brief period of moderate rain on the way in, but overall the day was still a good work day. We sawed 8 trees off the trail from the Crowder Place south to about 0.2 miles beyond Big Stack Gap. Fodderstack Trail is now clear of blowdowns for all of Section 18b, from Farr Gap to Pine Ridge. We will continue work on logging out Section 18a on our next work trip planned for next Monday.

Tazz Reid and Jim Holland using the crosscut saw

Here are the volunteer hours for the day:

Name Travel Time Work Time Total

Ken Jones 2 7 9

Tazz Reid 2 7 9

Jim Holland 3 7 10

Rick Harris 1 7 8

The tree at the top of Pine Ridge Trail Monday, April 7, 2008:

We continued working to clear all the blowdowns from the Fodderstack Trail yesterday. We went up the Pine Ridge Trail and cleared 2 trees from close to the top and very near the Fodderstack intersection. Rick Harris walked up with us and cleared a number of small trees with his new Felco 610 saw on Pine Ridge getting up to the first big tree. From there he left us to hike south on Fodderstack to return to Warden Fields via Brush Ridge and the South Fork Citico. Tazz and I cleared 3 more trees on Fodderstack to Harrison Gap. From this point the trail is now clear all the way back to Farr Gap.

Here are our hours for the trip:

Name Travel Hours Work Hours

Ken Jones 2 7.5

Tazz Reid 1.5 7.5

Rick Harris 1 2

Totals 4.5 17

Brenda Harris and their dog Jake, who just came along for the hike, climbed to the top of A waterfall on Ike Branch the Pine Ridge Trail, turned around at the first downed tree since Brenda had to be at a meeting at 2PM. Rick continued on down the BMT south past Harrison Gap, Rockstack, Glenn Gap, Chestnut Top, and Cherry Gap, then on down the new section of the BMT to the intersection with the Brush Mountain Trail, FT 97. The only other blowdowns seen on this section of the BMT were about a half mile into the new section of the BMT just past the campsite. The South Citico Creek Crossing of the Brush Mtn Trail There were several downed trees in a 1/4 mile section of the trail. Rick then hiked down the unmaintained Brush Mountain Trail to South Citico Creek and back to his car. The going in places was rough. There were not that many blowdowns, but there were lots and lots of tangles of greenbriar. And the hike down the creek bed to Ike Branch and beyond was something Rick would like to not ever repeat again. The going was tough, but the creek is truly beautiful with many waterfalls. There was a lot of water in the creek due to recent rains. The crossing over South Citico Creek was especially interesting, almost dangerous, due to the high water. The total distance was 15.2 miles and overall took 8 1/2 hours. The top speed on the Brush Mountain trail was about 1 mile per hour.

Trail map and profile of Rick Harris's loop hike.

Thursday, April 17, 2008: We continued working on clearing Fodderstack of all blowdowns yesterday. We went in from Beech Gap, and noticed that the carsonite sign post had been pulled out of the ground. I will have to take the post driver back up some time to re-plant it. When Tazz went to start his Bronco back up, it would not start. It turns out that the starter had broken loose, so we parked on the hills for the rest of the day. We cleared 2 trees of the gated road section with the chainsaw, and 6 more trees with the crosscut saw for a total of 8 trees. The entire 13 miles of Fodderstack / BMT should now be clear of blowdowns (if only briefly!).

Other items of note for the Tellico District are that the metal sign prohibiting horses placed at the northern intersection of Fodderstack and Bob Stratton Alternate (inside the wilderness) was gone. There also were signs of recent illegal horse use on the northern section of Trail # 54A to access Bob Stratton Bald. We didn’t see any signs of horse use on the section of Trail # 54A headed back down to Cold Springs Gap (southern section).

Here are our volunteer hours for the day:

Name	Travel Time	Work Time	Totals
Ken Jones	2	5.5	7.5
Jim Holland	3	5.5	8.5
Tazz Reid	2	5.5	7.5
Totals	7	16.5	23.5

---Submitted by Ken Jones