Guardail at Uwharrie?

By Richard Queen, Uwharrie NF Delegate
October 28, 2006

Has the Uwharrie National Forest trail system become so gnarly that we need guardrails to keep us on the trails? Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. It is to keep users on the trails but NOT to keep them from falling over steep embankments like the famous “Guardrail” portion of trail #11 at Tellico.

Traffic within the Uwharrie trail system can get very congested at times and rather than do the right thing and wait for a few minutes, some trail users/abusers choose to make their own immediate detour. In the past, rustic cedar fencing was used to mark the boundaries between legal and non-legal areas of travel. Although aesthetically pleasing, it was not very sturdy and was in a constant state of disrepair. Many thousands of hours were utilized in the construction and reconstruction of this fence.

Many choices were considered and tested. In the most active and remote areas guardrail is the choice. In the more public areas the cedar fencing will remain. In other areas signage, grading, wire fencing, and the use of naturally fallen debris are all combined to keep our trail system well marked, safe and legal.

The best change that we have seen by far is the efforts of District Ranger Deborah Walker and her staff at enforcement of the new ATV rules and all rules in general. Many times the Rangers and Forest Service personnel will ride along with us on the trails and it is a real surprise for some to see one of the green uniforms hop out of a Jeep and ask to see trail passes and check for safety items.

Our summer projects have consisted not only of the installation of guardrail at Uwharrie, tons of litter has been picked up, storm damaged areas have been cleaned up, bridges have been repaired, and many campsites have been rebuilt. At times, the Western wildfires kept our rangers and FS personnel busy and unavailable to help with our trail maintenance duties but our work never stopped.

Attendance has been great this year, if you have attended workdays and didn’t like just picking up litter, please come back we have lots to do! There are still workdays remaining this year and there’s always next year. As always, we work for a while, then go trail riding afterwards. Trail riding, camping, and hot showers are free to workday attendees. And don’t forget, we work Saturday AND Sunday so if you have to work at your job on Saturday, you can always show up for a fun day of work and play on Sunday.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season and we’ll see ya on the trails!

Izzy - a big helper on the trails!