Thanks and Welcome

Thank you for volunteering to be a Section Maintainer on the Benton MacKaye Trail. Many have found this responsibility to be rewarding. There is a special feeling that comes with having your own section of trail to maintain through the seasons and years.

Guidelines

A Section Maintainer is expected to keep his or her section open and in good condition for hiking and to let the Maintenance Director know if/when any help is needed. That last part is important because a Section Maintainer is also a section monitor. Keeping aware of the shape your section is in, and asking for any needed help come with the job. Many volunteer maintainers in the BMTA stand ready to support you but you must request the help. There are several sections that routinely need the extra work contributed by trail volunteers. Don't be shy about asking!

Standards

The BMTA has adopted the standards of trail maintenance found in the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's "Appalachian Trail Fieldbook, Maintenance and Rehabilitation Guidelines for Volunteers". If you haven't already been provided a copy, please request one from your Maintenance Director. (See "Description of Work", below, for more information.)

Safety

Working safely is the number one priority in trail work. Please take all precautionary measures, use all protective gear, work carefully, and use caution. It only takes a moment of carelessness for an injury to occur. Don't let that happen to you or to the ones you're working with.

Work Reports

Please submit a work report to your Maintenance Director within two weeks of the time the work is done. This allows the work to be reported to the Forest Service in a timely manner. The Maintainer's Report Form lists the essential information needed. That form can be used or the same information can be given by phone or in a written message sent by email or US mail. If your Maintenance Director does not receive any reports from you for several months, he or she will have to spend time contacting you to make sure your section has not been abandoned!

Problem Reports

Please report any major problems that you are unable to correct yourself as soon as you become aware of them. This way, arrangements can be made to correct them as quickly as possible. These may include:

1. Signs damaged or missing
2. Large blowdowns
3. Major treadway damage (from erosion, etc.) or deterioration
4. Water diversion needs

Equipment

Georgia

Some tools are available in the tool shed located next to the pavilion on the Sisson property near Cherry Log. A key is available for Section Maintainers to access these tools. (Ask the Georgia Maintenance Director if you don’t already have one.) Please sign out any tools taken and sign them back in when returned.

Tennessee and North Carolina

No central tool repository exists. Some Section Maintainers keep BMTA tools at their homes and others use their own tools. Ask the TN/NC Maintenance Director about these and other tool sources.

Basic Equipment

1. Work gloves (the thing most often forgotten!)
2. Safety glasses
3. Poison Ivy protection: long pants and long sleeve shirt or ivy skin guard (at drugstore)
4. First-aid kit
5. Day pack or fanny pack
6. Hand pruning shears (carry in pocket or holster)
7. Collapsible pruning saw, 8-10" (carry in pocket or holster)

Larger Equipment

1. Loppers – use to cut branches and saplings up to 1" caliper
2. Fire Rake – good for chopping a few briars and for cleaning waterbars
3. Swingblade or WeedCutter - for long stretches with briars and weeds
4. Bow saw – for blowdowns and trees leaning into trail (Be sure blade has a guard - can cut tubing to make.)
5. Pulaski – sidehill trail, dig water diversions, and smaller chopping jobs
6. Adz hoe – repair/reconstruct sidehill trail

Equipment For Blazing

1. Template for blazes – contact your Maintenance Director to request one
2. Paint - any name brand, exterior, semi-gloss, mildew-resistant, white paint; Latex only
3. Paint brush - 1 inch recommended
4. Paint Scraper - for removing loose bark before blazing
5. Pencil or Marker - use to outline blaze before painting
6 Wire brush - to remove old blazes, if needed (optional)

Note: No blazing equipment is kept by the BMTA; Section Maintainers keep their own. No blazes are permitted in designated Wilderness.

Description of Work

1. Clearing Vegetation

Strive to keep the trail clear during the most active months of hiking, March - November. Note that tree branches grow slowly and are less trouble to hikers than briars and thorny blackberries which grow much faster. For this reason, it is recommended that branches and all cane and woody material be removed within the prescribed 4-foot-wide by 8-foot-high corridor window during the dormant season. Most sections will need another pass after the Spring growing season, typically in late May or June (depending on elevation, rainfall and temperatures). Some sections will require a third pass in August. In the growing season, try to maintain the corridor window at a minimum of 2-ft-wide by 6-ft-high, though the closer to the 4' x 8' standard, the better.

2. Treadway

When walking your section, it is good practice to knock small branches and other trip hazards off to the side. This helps keep the treadway defined and safer for hikers. Waterbars should be cleaned annually (A fire rake is useful for this.) and reconstructed as needed. When a stretch of sidehilled trail becomes worn or eroded, rehabilitate it. (Pulaski or adz hoe are useful.) Leaves and duff should be left on the trail as they help prevent erosion.

3. Blowdowns

You will normally be able to handle minor blowdowns (up to 6" caliper). Experienced maintainers can handle larger trees using a bow saw. Never attempt to saw out a blowdown you are not absolutely certain you can handle safely. Larger trees can weigh several tons and shift unpredictably as they are cut. If in doubt, ask for help (give specific location information). Blowdowns 2-5 feet high should be given top priority.

4. Blazing

♦ The BMTA has adopted a white, 5-inch-wide by 7-inch-high, painted blaze as standard. Please use the provided template both for new blazes and to refresh old ones.

♦ Existing 'glob blazes' can be brought to standard by tracing the outline on the existing paint then using a scraper to remove the overrun.

♦ Unneeded blazes should be removed.

♦ If you find any plastic blazes (which are being phased out), any damaged ones should be removed. If in good condition and in an appropriate location, they may be left in place.

♦ All intersections, turns, places where the treadway is not well defined, and points of potential confusion should be blazed. (Look at the trail as if you were a hiker who had never seen it before.) Otherwise, blazes should be spaced about 600 ft apart (approximately 3 minutes of hiking). If not already blazed to standard, try to have your section at standard within two years. After this, one blazing trip per year should keep your blazes in top shape.

♦ Remember that a double-blaze means "change-of-direction or heads-up!". It should be the last mark before the turn, intersection, etc. and should be placed just before it, not in it. Standing in the turn, intersection, etc., one should readily be able to see the single blaze leading away and a reassurance blaze should appear shortly after. Be sure to check both directions of travel. Do not blaze every turn! Double-blazing is required only where there is a possibility of missing a turn. For example, a switchback turn with no connection to any existing road or trail would not be blazed.

Changing Sections or Retiring

If and when, for any reason, you wish to change sections, take a smaller segment of your current section or give up your section altogether, please let your Maintenance Director know. All work done on any section of trail is appreciated.

Further Questions

Please call your Maintenance Director.

Rev. November, 2005

BMTA Home   Contact Us   Site Map   Events   Membership Info

All content copyright © 2003-2008 by Benton MacKaye Trail Association, Inc. All rights reserved.