January 2025 Trail Days, Nov & Dec Photos

January 2025 Trail Days, Nov & Dec Photos

Wild South continues to have hurricane recovery projects both on National Forest and out in the surrounding communities.

Volunteer event schedule is becoming more regular.  The challenge in January is likely to be winter weather.

Weather permitting, our normal schedule is:

■ WEEKDAYS projects out in the communities of Mitchell, Yancey, and Unicoi Counties

■ THURSDAYS & SATURDAYS trail projects in Linville Gorge

If you’d like to join us for volunteer events, the best way to do that is to let us know what days you are available.

P.S. – Watch for river cleanup projects on Wilson Creek and the Nolichucky in coming months!

 

November & December Photos

COMMUNITY RECOVERY – Halley is coordinating a wide variety of storm recovery projects in the communities surrounding National Forest.  Delivering firewood, cleaning flooded homes, installing satellite internet, clearing trees, repairing driveways, finding markers washed from family cemeteries, installing well-pump generators, delivering and winterizing donated campers, and more.

 

LINVILLE GORGE – Matt Johnson restores and sharpens the traditional crosscut saws that Wild South uses in wilderness areas.  Volunteers cleared 160 trees off trails in Nov & Dec.

 

SPENCE RIDGE TRAIL – Spence was the first trail we were able to clear post-Helene.  It gives folks a chance to hike into the wilderness and see how the storm affected the river crossing.

 

BABEL TOWER TRAIL – Babel was the second trail we cleared.  It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun with so many hands.

 

BYNUM BLUFF TRAIL – Bynum was a big project that took three days to complete.  The storm changes to the streambank and waterfall down at the river are impressive.

 

CHAINSAW TRAINING – The day job is still crosscut saws, but a strong team of Wild South volunteers also got chainsaw certified in December so we can help with a wider variety of National Forest storm recovery projects.