BMT from Sandy Gap to Six Mile Gap

This section of the Benton MacKaye Trail runs in the Cherokee National Forest, Tellico Ranger District, from Six Mile Gap near Waucheesi Mountain to Sandy Gap, a distance of about 2.1 miles. The trail follows the crest of the ridge mostly on old logging roads. The Benton MacKaye Trail is a 300 mile long distance trail from Springer Mountain, GA to the north end of the Smokies, following the originally envisioned route of the Appalachian Trail as proposed by Benton MacKaye.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008: Steve Cartwright and I (Ken Jones) worked on his section of the BMT, going in from Sandy Gap. We installed three routed signs on the three posts that I had installed last fall. These posts are all located in the first 1.3 miles in from Sandy Gap. The first and third posts had so much damage to the tops that I had to mount the signs almost half way down to the ground. One post was definitely damaged by a bear, and the other looked like it had sustained a shotgun blast. Now these look like crosses that someone has planted to anyone coming up from a distance. When I get some left turn signs from Marty Dominy, I will mount them and saw off the tops to make them look better. That is provided that these signs last that long.

After we finished the third sign, we turned around and headed back toward Sandy Gap clearing blowdowns with my one-man crosscut saw. We cleared a total of 8 blowdowns, but there are still 7 - 8 more that we didn't get to in the 1/4 mile adjacent to Sandy Gap. These will have to wait on our next trip in there, but at least they are close to where we can park.

Here is our time for the day:

Name Volunteer Hours

Ken Jones 11

Steve Cartwright 11

Length: 2.2 miles

Time Spent from Leaving to Returning: 22 hours (11x2=22 hours of maintenance work)

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