We had 7 volunteers for this session, which was shortened to 4 days. We had dry weather for the duration, though the overly-warm afternoons chased us out of the woods and onto the porch to sip cold beverages. During 2 evenings we saw elk across the field from the ranch house and heard bugling occasionally through the night. Dark and clear skies made for great star-gazing.
Our top priority was rehabilitating some trail where the usable tread had been narrowed by years of sediment collecting along the inner edge. We were able to address 600-700′ in 4 areas, including this short stretch just upriver from the Pruitt trail head:
South of Walker Mountain Road (NC8105) – near the southern end of the trail – we used a DR mower and a Stihl brush cutter to mow a path through 1/4 mile of grass and blast a 4-5′ path through about 1/2 mile of really nasty brush. Hikers can now cruise through without being shredded by briars.
We also removed several more trees from the trail and added blazes in an area where hikers had been losing the trail.
Buffalo River Trail Crew 