Hurricane Ivan Cleanup and Work Weekend

October 2004

[ Note: Hurricane Ivan hit hard in north Georgia in September 2004. Many trees went down and many of the roads and trails in the Chattahoochee National Forest were closed afterwards.
Curtis Barnhart is in charge of coordinating volunteer activities at Beasley Knob OHV Area for Georgia Bounty Runners and Southern 4WD Association. ]

by Curtis Barnhart, , Georgia Bounty Runners 4WD Club

The Rangers have asked us to clean-up and re-open the trails at the Beasley Knob OHV area. Lane, Pat and Robert have walked the area and confirm lots of downed trees blocking the trails. The described damage is reminiscent of the damage Hurricane Opal did and in what seems to be the same locations. Many have heard about the amount of work and time the club spent clearing the trails back then, well we need to do it again.

We need to have a very strong showing this coming club ride weekend at Beasley, Oct. 16-17. All certified sawyer help is needed, bringing saw(s) and protective equipment if you have it. Lots of help moving cut tree limbs and trunks will be needed so we need a large manpower pool. I'm hoping for minimum 3 groups with minimum 2 sawyers in each and that we have minimum 10 helpers in each group. All be sure to bring gloves, clothing for expected weather conditions and safety helmets if you have them.

There will be a need for vehicles with multiple seats so we can limit the number of vehicles having to be moved. Some areas will be only initially accessible by walking so we don't want to leave vehicles if we don't have to.

We will camp at the Beasley camp area and plan to leave out at 9:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Bring lots of food and drink.

I'd like to know of the number of people coming.

There will be sign-in sheets for everyone who shows up so please keep the usual records on mileage driven, food cost, lodging and miscellaneous.

More information and any changes or up-dates will be provided at this weekend's club meeting and on-line.

Please keep in touch with any questions your club has about this clean-up work. We all would like to get the area open as soon as possible and the more people we get in there working the sooner it can happen.

From the U.S. Forest Service Press Release (Top of Georgia Newsletter, November 2004):

"Beasley Knob OHV trails recently re-opened thanks to the efforts of volunteers from five clubs. The trails had been closed since September 17 when hurricane Ivan clogged the trails with fallen trees. ..."   read more ...

 

Before (trail blocked):

Georgia Bounty Runners clearing the trail: