Tellico Work Weekend

written by Stefan Roth                       October 29-30, 2005
photos by Stefan Roth

Members of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association (SFWDA) recently spent their free time improving access at the Upper Tellico OHV Area for the general public. A crew of ten volunteers, plus two U.S. Forest Service employees, put the finishing touches on a new parking lot at the entrance of this popular 4-wheeling destination.

Name	Affiliation
Gunnar Byrd	Scenic City 4WD Club
Griff Shirley	Scenic City 4WD Club
Brad Headrick	Atomic City Four Wheelers
Mike Campbell	East Tennessee 4WD Club
Brent Galloway	East Tennessee 4WD Club
Joe Smith	East Tennessee 4WD Club
Dave Owens	East Tennessee 4WD Club
Steve Belcher	Southern Off Road
Wayne Kickles	Smoky Mountain Trail Runners
Stefan Roth	Renegade 4WD Club
all clubs are members of Southern Four Wheel Drive Association
Larry Fox	U.S. Forest Service
Todd Sharkee	U.S. Forest Service

The new parking lot is suitable for pickup trucks and trailers for members and public alike to bring their Jeeps, ATVs, and motorcycles to participate in motorized recreation in the Nantahala National Forest, located between Murphy, North Carolina and Tellico Plains, Tennessee. Members spent October 29 and 30, 2005 building the metal railings out of 6" diameter, 1/4" thickness structural steel pipes. The railings serve as a fence to keep vehicles within the parking lot and to prevent anyone from driving through the woods off the trails.

The Forest Service began the paper work, consisting of environmental studies, public input, and design, several months ago to get the project off the ground.

Southern Four Wheel Drive Association originally began working on the parking lot in September. Land was cleared and graded to make the two acre site. Gravel was hauled in and smoothed down. The entrance was originally supposed to go to trail #1, but the parking lot is immediately next to trail 1, but considerably above it. Running the entrance road to trail 1 would have required a very long access road to be cut so provide for acessibility for trailers. Therefore, the entrance is now off trail 6.

The new parking lot is located near the Tennessee / North Carolina state line. To access it, from the state line entrance station, drive up trail #6 for about 500 feet and it will be on your right. The parking lot is expected to be finished and open for use in November 2005.

The main remaining task is sanding and painting the railings to finish up the work.

Each pipe starts off about 20 feet in length. They are so heavy that two people can barely carry one.
In the background is the tractor with the post driver and an industrial-grade Lincoln welder.

An acetylene torch is used to cut the 20 foot lengths into thirds to serve as posts for the railings.

The hydraulic post driver surely beats doing it by hand, especially when dozens of posts have to be sunk into the ground!

Ahhhhh - a shocking experience. It's not all work and no fun!

	This post needed to be driven a little deeper to line it up with its neighboring posts ...
	... and the railing needed to be held down to weld it into place. Backhoes are one of the ultimate tools for trail maintenance work.

Lunch time!

Member Griff Shirley operating our 4WD backhoe, which we use for trail maintenance work.

Cutting a turn into the railing.

	Starting work on a new section of railing ...
	... putting it in place ...
	... and nearly done.

Finishing up the welds on a long section of railing.

	The entrance / exit ramp is about to get its railing, too!
	Driving more posts into the ground.
	The railing is taking shape, but it's getting dark.

A light show as darkness sets in.

Welding a bend into the pipe.

Almost done with the welding at the entrance to the new parking lot.