Help: KY trail maintenance, Feb 14

[John B]

I'm attaching a letter from Charlie Rowe, the chief forest ranger for Red River. He's calling for lots of volunteers because of heavy damage from our recent ice storms. And even if you can't make it on the 14th, then he asks you to get out and hike some on various trails in the gorge and send him a report of what you encounter so that he can make appropriate plans.

If you live in KY, it'd be great to help:


Hey Trail Crew

I hope everybody survived the ice storm okay. I know this letter goes out to different geographical areas with differing amounts of impacts form the ice storm. The Red River Gorge was hit very hard with broken limbs and downed trees. KY 77 and 715 are now open but every Forest Service road in the area is currently closed. We will be working to reopen these roads over the next few weeks. I am not sure what condition the trails are in, they usually don?t get hit as bad as the roads but I am sure there is a lot of stuff down out there! I would like to request that anybody that can make it to the RRG in the next few weeks to get out on trails and let me know what you find. I will use the information for future TC outings or we may be able to get some outside chainsaw crews down here to help out. If you think you will be hiking RRG trails in the weeks to come and would like to do a condition report, email me and I will offer you a format to follow to make it easier to for us to use the data.
The February outing is coming up in a couple weeks on Valentines Day weekend. I have heard from several folks that plan on attending so this should be good size winter outing. Plans are to do trail clearing on the Sheltowee and attempt to block of a user trail with a log barricade.
With this type of project it is good to have several hands to help move the small logs into place. The meeting place for the February outing will be at the Gladie Cultural and Environmental Learning Center front gate.
The meeting time will be 10:00AM. The gates will be locked and Gladie closed so meeting parking may be limited.
So 10:00 at Gladie on Valentines Day February 14th. Let?s do our sign-in, safety briefing and get out on the trails! And, of course the evening will include the famous RRGTC potluck dinner and fireside social.
Come enjoy the evening or stay the night if you want. However our campground may not have electrical service back on by then so it could be like the good ole days; bring your lanterns and water.
To get to Gladie Historic site; take exit 33 from the Mountain Parkway and turn left under the overpass. Turn left again on KY 15 / 11 north, about a mile or so then turn right on KY 77. Bear right at the KY 715 junction and follow 715 to Gladie.
All Red River Gorge Trail Crew service outings are official US Forest Service approved projects. All Red River Gorge Trail Crew participants sign on as official US Forest Service Volunteers. For more information contact the US Forest Service Office, 705 College Ave, Stanton, KY 40380 Phone 606-663-0576 ext. 106

Charlie R.

Charlie Rowe
US Forest Service
705w. College Ave.
Stanton, KY 40380
606-663-0576 Ext. 106

[dradius]

I'll be there. Anybody wanting to carpool from the Louisville area let me know.
BTW I love your avatar John.

[mtnkngxt]

What town is this near?

[Tabasco]

One hour south east of Lexington, KY. Coming in on I-64 WB from Ashland KY area you would get on the Bert Combs Mtn Parkway