Piney Maintenance

Jan Agee, TC Varner, and Don Deakins joined Brandy Selman and Ronald Skiles of the state trail maintenance crew for a hike to the Piney River Bridge where a landslide has covered the trail. At least 100 feet of trail is buried under 2 to 3 feet of debris while the middle 50 feet of this 100 foot section is covered with and additional 12 feet of mud, rocks, and trees. This section can probably never be reclaimed without heavy equipment so the trail will have to be rerouted. Although not built to Cumberland Trail specifications, we did construct a temporary route over the landslide which required cutting away numerous trees and building a ramp of stacked rock on which a sure-footed hiker can climb.

Slide show of Don's photos

Group photo on our roughly constructed route over the landslide