Today's trail work was on one of our adopted areas in Doughton Park, a unit of the Blue Ridge Parkway and National Park Service. Basin Creek Trail begins at the primitive campsites 1.6 miles from Longbottom Road. This first 1.6 miles of trail is on the Grassy Gap Trail and is an old two track road in relatively good condition. Basin Creek Trail starts out as a two track but very shortly after crossing Basin Creek for the first time, narrows to a wide path. It is only a 3.3 mile trail but being a dead end trail, you have to walk up 3.3 miles and back.
Our task was to remove trees and limbs which have fallen on the trail. As the Hemlocks die, limbs are shed and eventually the entire tree comes down. Above, is such a tree. We weren't able to saw through it with our small hand saws, so we cleared all the collateral brush and cut an easily negotiable route over the main trunk.
It is a very scenic trail along the creek. A number of crossing like the one above add a certain challenge to this route. Today I whacked my shin on one of the crossings.The water level was manageable today. The creek does rise significantly with rainfall. One particularly nasty flood occurred July 15-16, 1916. Two significant rain events (some say they were back to back hurricanes) caused the damage. Many other mountain communities felt the wrath of this rainfall. Reports of up to 20 inches of rain in 24 hours were recorded in the area. So much rain on already sodden ground caused mudslides, bringing trees down. Every home on the creek except the Caudill Cabin at the headwaters, was destroyed. Three persons, all in one of the swept-away cabins, died. One of those, Alice Caudill, the young wife of Linnie Caudill is buried in lonely solitary grave at the start of Basin Creek Trail.
This red maple was too much for us to handle. We looked it over closely and walked on. We're hoping NPS staff armed with chain saw and more experience will tackle it.
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