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Another day -- another trail!
This will be cross-posted to AT-L, PCT-L, and OUTDOR-L so if you've seen it
before please use your DELETE key now.
Saturday, March 3, 1996 was a great day for the Bartram Trail in western North
Carolina! For a work trip on a new and final(?) 4-mile section of the trail, a
hundred and ten (110) hardy souls showed up at the Nantahala River Put-in
parking area at the upper end of the Nantahala Gorge. Close to 300 had been
expected, but the 30-degree weather with some snow flurries the night before,
probably kept many at home.
Sixty-five brothers from several fraternities at Western Carolina University,
fifteen to twenty US Forest Service personnel, six seasoned trail maintainers
from the Carolina Mountain Club, a group of about ten inexperienced but eager
members of a non-denominational church in Asheville, several members of The
Bartram Trail Society, a couple of trail maintainers from Nantahala Hiking
Club (including me), five or six EMS and First Responders, volunteered their
time, skills, and efforts to make Saturday a rousing success. If you are
counting, I'm sure I left some groups unnamed here. The Nantahala Outdoor
Center provided the transportation to sopts near the trail head(s) using
their buses usually reserved for rafters. Half the crew started at one end and
the other half at the other. The best part about the whole day other than
completing about 3.5 miles of the trail - not one person was injured!
John Newman