Jonathon Gogan, Steve Thomas and Harold Banks cut and remove logs from the trail.

Monday April 17, 2023 – Jim Scott Deadening Trail Re-opened: After a concentrated effort by CRATA leadership and our volunteers, all downed trees across the trail, from the recent tornado, have been cut and cleared from the trail. The entire trail is now open to our hikers. There is still clean-up work to do, but we have been able to clear the trail to a point that hikers can now traverse the entire trail, There are still a few stepover and walk under trees that remain and other debris that we will work on in the near future, Please let us know if you encounter any safety problems that need to be addressed. We really appreciate our volunteer crews stepping up helping get this work done for our hikers! This morning we had a group that was very skilled with chainsaw work and that helped tremendously. We were able to divide and conquer with two crews working different problem areas.

Volunteers working the trail today included: Steve and Julia Thomas, Jimmy Lanier, Mike Wilson, Bill Garnett, Harold Banks, Walt Hutcheson, Bob Keyser, Daniel Keyser and Jonathon Gogan.

Julia Thomas requesting a bigger saw!

Betty Cannon, Jimmy Lanier and Becky Franks making a plan.

Work Continues on the Jim Scott Deadening Trail Damage.

Wednesday, April 5,2023 – Today our crew of volunteers hit the Jim Scott Deadening Trail to continue the ongoing effort to remove downed trees from the recent F-1 tornado that crossed Lake Martin. The lower, northern portion of the trail was directly in the path of the tornado and sustained heavy damage, with hundreds of downed trees. The upper, southern part of the trail received less damage but still had over fifty downed trees. The work crew today was working to clear the trees on the upper section of the trail, in an effort to get most of the Deadening Trail cleared and re-opened for our hikers. The efforts were successful and the upper portion of the trail has been re-opened to the public. At the current time hikers can hike that  3.1 mile section of the trail and by-pass the lower 1.1 mile section. We have signs in place for guidance. The northern end of the peninsula is so heavily damaged that it will take crews months to return that section to a useable trail. It is completely impassible at this time!

Volunteers working hard on the trail today were Jimmy Lanier, Steve and Julia Thomas, Harold Banks, Bill Garnett, Clay Humphries, Becky Franks, Betty Cannon, Doug Lewis, Robert Keyser, Graham Yuill  and Hank Morris.