Trail Maintenance Hike on Scaly Mountain

This section of the Bartram Trail runs from the Osage Mountain parking area over the top of Scaly, down the other (north) side to Tessentee Creek, and back again for a total of 8.8 miles with 2500 ft elevation gain. The initial ascent to the third of the three 180-degree lookouts on the top of Scaly takes 1.5 hours and the descent down the other side 1.25 hours--when the trail is in good shape. However, as Lisa reported in her write-up to a recent hike there, Irma made a mess of the trail on the north side of Scaly. "Many trees were blown down, splintered and/or uprooted. A couple times we almost lost the trail after having to to go over, under, and around large fallen trees." What is obviously needed is a crew with chain saws, but as such a one may not appear all that soon, since the Bartram Trail does not have the same degree of maintenance support as the AT, we propose to see what we can do to clear a pathway through the debris with our more modest resources. On our side is the extra daylight we get from doing the hike on the last day of Daylight Saving Time (sunset at 6:35).

This is a working hike, so please wear your cruddy hiking clothes, long pants, and a long sleeve. Please bring gloves, small saws, and clippers. No power tools. Don't bring anything too heavy to carry the distance. 

After the hike we plan to have a team dinner in Clayton to celebrate our labors. 

Ann will coordinate the carpool and Dorothea will be joinng the group at the Clayton Ingles. Anyone else "meeting at the event" should be at the Ingles by 9:30. 

From the park and ride take I-85 North to I-985 North. I-985 turns into GA 365/US 23/US 441. Continue to the Ingles in Clayton for a stop. Once back in the cars, continue north on 441 about seven miles to beyond Dillard, where you make a right on GA 246 in the direction of Highlands, NC. This road turns into NC 106 at the NC line. Twenty minutes after leaving Clayton (13.6 miles), look for the Osage Mountain parking lot on your right.