Skyway Loop/Chinnabee Silent trip 11/20-11/21

[dogwood]

Enjoyable trip!  Great weather, a lot of hunters seen, but no problems, and treated to a full moon on Saturday night! We put in at Adams Gap, hiked to Lake Chinnabee, and camped near the intersection of the Skyway and Chinnabee trail.  Most of the Skyway Loop blazes are gone or faded terribly, and parts of the trail are pretty overgrown, but the hike was mostly easy to follow.  Saw Sailer around noon on Saturday(pleasure to meet you, hope you made it to your next destination with no problems!) and quite a few other hikers thoughout the weekend.  A hunting dog decided to join our camp on Friday night and bedded down next to my tent.  She was friendly, but snored LOUDLY throughout the night.  The hike out on Sunday was great, and we saw even more backpackers.  The fall colors were pretty, but all are starting to turn to brown.

[Firedog]

Hey Dogwood, sounds like a good outing. What color was the blazes. We were talking about doing the Skyway loop. We cold touch them up a bit.

[dogwood]

The trail map says that the official blazes are supposed to be blue.  The few blazes that had color were sort of a baby or sky-blue.  Most were either no blaze or very faded. 
Wish i could have joined you guys on the Cave Creek Cave hike - sounded like a lot of fun!  However, i'd already made plans for the Skyway and Chinnabee...

[ednotmilkman]

The Pinhoti is supposed to be sky blue for sure, but I've forgotten if the other trails have an official color or not ?  Seems to me that inside the wilderness boundary, the official rule is no blazes as well as no chain saws, but common sense may prevail when the FS rangers are not accompanying you as you do you part to keep everybody on the trail.

[jaybird]

For as long as I can remember, the Skyway Loop has had a milky blue color -- much lighter than the sky blue of the Pinhoti.  Seems as though I remember the shape being different too?  Are they triangles or diamonds, or am I dreaming that?

[weathermansam]

only photo i have of a skyway blaze....trip was 3.5yrs ago...

[jaybird]

Don't I see a turkey foot right above that blaze.  Are you sure that isn't the Pinhoti?

[weathermansam]

Don't I see a turkey foot right above that blaze.  Are you sure that isn't the Pinhoti?

You're right, I thumbed back through the photos....we were standing at the junction of the pinhoti and skyway when I took the photos. 

[jaybird]

This, from the Pinhoti Trails Alliance website.  It's from an ongoing conversation between 2006 and 2009, so I'm not sure what year they're referring to.  At any rate, the side trails, seem to have escaped this plan for now...........:

Any reason there's such a variance in the type of blazes -- white diamonds/silver metal diamonds/etc...?The FS has been working on the Pinhoti National Recreation Trail Management Plan (for Alabama) for years. This document includes what our blazing standard is and the plan was finally completed earlier this year. It calls for painted blue rectangles for the Pinhoti and painted white rectangles for all side trails. Almost the whole Alabama section was reblazed with the blue rectangles over this past winter.

[dogwood]

I guess that makes sense as to why many of the Skyway's blazes looked faded.  If i'm not mistaken, Forest Service map#4 shows Skyway as a blue rectangle.  Anyway, event though the blazing was sparse at times, the trails was still easy to follow in most places.  Speaking of the Pinhoti, i remember the painted "turkey foot" blazes from years ago.  Those were pretty neat, but hard to see at times.  The metal tags were the best....

[Firedog]

Anybody up for a Skyway Loop Reblazing Day. I don't know what the regulations are but I could cut some white reflective metal rectangles w/fastener holes or I could cut a template and spray the blazing things.

[squidbilly]

I'm all for it..if I can get a day off. The template and spray would be easy, but the reflective metal would be really nice. What are you going to cut them out of?

[Firedog]

Steel road sign stock. I can get trimmings. usually a couple of inches wide up to 10' long. I've used them to make water guages and can probably get enough to cut & make trail markers. They already have white reflective coating on one side.  We would have to try and guess how many we would need and pack them in. Also we would need to know if we could secure them with galvanized nails

[squidbilly]

I have the Forest Service map#4 for the Pinhoti trail. It lists mileage and blaze descriptions of the trails in this area.

Odom :          : 4.7mi.
Chinnabee Silent: Blue blazes - 6.0mi.
Skyway: Blue triangle - 6.6mi.
Lakeshore: White blazes  - 2.0mi.
Nubbin Creek: Blue blazes -4.0mi.
Cave Creek: Unpainted tree blaze - 4.0mi

They left the Odom blank. Guess they never decided on that one!?
I don't know if we would have to stick with this or not.  I like the management plan Jaybird spoke of that called for blue blazes on the Pinhoti, and white blazes for side trails. We should check with the Talladega Ranger District, I guess.  Firedog's white reflective blaze plates would be cool--they would  light up under your headlight beam.

[Verduretiger]

I would love to participate if you need help.

[buck]

Speaking of blazes, I saw this yellow blaze at the big Caney Head intersection during my last hike (this would be looking back south):

[dogwood]

If i'm not mistaken, the Odum is/was yellow-blazed.  It definately goes to the south...

[vapor]

I found some ancient data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service from the early 80's that has some info on the markings or at least as they were intended at that time most of which is the same as what squidbilly posted from the Forest Service map #4. This info confirms that the Odom Trail was originally blazed with a 2" x 5" yellow mark. I also checked some of my photos from March this year & found they show yellow marks for Odum too. Hope this helps!

[squidbilly]

Thanks for the Odom info Buck, Dogwood and Vapor. It's been a few years since I hiked the Odom from High Falls, and I don't remember the blazes. The yellow blaze in Buck's picture looks fresh, so it's nice to see someone is maintaining the trail.

Hey Firedog, have you cut those white blaze plates yet? Let me know if I can do anything to help.

[Firedog]

Nope, We need to check with the FS to make sure attaching plates are cool with them. Also, we need to decide if we are going to reblaze Skyway & Chinabee or just Skyway. I can cut the plates anytime and need to know an estimate of how many. Jan 1st, Jan 15th, Feb 5th, Feb 26th are open weekends for me.
As in the immortal words of John Blutarsky,,,,Let's Do It!!!

[squidbilly]

Jan. 1st,  Jan. 15      I'm pretty sure I'm off those weekends.  I haven't hiked either trail, so I don't know which one needs reblazing worst.  From the posts above it seems like we should take care of Skyway first.

[Firedog]

let's get some consensus on anyone else that wants to help and available dates and go with it.

[Verduretiger]

I am available any weekend after the 9th of January. 

[treyster333]

That's so funny you mention the dob. Throughout the years up there I have had many run ins with the Hound Dogs. One time the Hunters decided to collect them about 50 yeards from our tent and we were way off trail down below the falls. They fought all night. Crazy... but what do you tell 12 coon hunters at 1am with 20 dogs in the middle of no where? Move your party?? LOL! We made friends!

[Firedog]

Been watching the weather forecast. It's calling for thunderstorms for Saturday. We will shoot for another weekend if that's cool with everybody. The 15th is good for me. Maybe the weather will cooperate better that weekend. I still haven't heard back from the FS about permission for us to attach new plates or if we have to paint the new blazes. I'll call again Thursday.
Seems like that would be better for most anyway.
Let me know who's in.

[jaybird]

The 15th is Pinhoti Challenge weekend, Oakey Mountain, not that y'all can't go ahead without me.

[Firedog]

Talked to the new Ranger of the Shoal Creek District today, Karen McKenzie. She said Leslie Hodge would be in on Monday and let us know about attaching new metal reflective blazes on the Skyway loop.
Jay if you want to come along we can reschedule but my weekends are limited as well as Squidbilly's. If weather permits we may have to go ahead and will miss your company and input. I want to try to make as many challenge hikes as possible this year.

[buck]

I'll gladly help if the work continues past deer season. Right now my weekends are booked with a 9 and 11 year old in a treestand.

[Firedog]

Talked to Leslie Hodge today from the NFS. She confirmed that NFS standards is for Pinhoti markings to be light blue and any side trail be marked in white blazes. At this time painted blazes only, are allowed. She is going to send a request up the pipe to see if metal reflective blazes can be attached to trees. I told her it would benefit night hikers and such. She will let us know when she gets word. In the meanwhile, I'll make several templates to spray the blazes on.  I am going to move this thread to Projects/help wanted, here's the link:
 http://www.alatrails.com/...dex.php/topic,2696.0.html

Sorry Dogwood for hijacking your thread.

Carl W.
chw48@bellsouth.net

[dogwood]

No problem, my friend!  I'm not that sensitive...; )