by Leanna Joyner, ATC Senior Director of Partnerships and Trail Operations
A.T. Clubs Mobilize After Helene
Appalachian Trail Clubs Mobilize Remarkable Improvements Following Hurricane Helene
The full brunt of Hurricane Helene on Friday, September 27 with high winds and rain, followed a few days of rain in much of the impacted area. Some areas didn’t reach the high-water mark for rivers until midday Saturday as the watersheds continued to drain. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the storm as a geologic event, with thousands of landslides reported, in addition to rivers carving new or expanded routes through the landscape.
The incident staunched power and internet services, and cell service was also inactive in impacted areas for varying amounts of time – ranging from several days to a few weeks.
Over 800 miles of the Appalachian Trail were impacted. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) discouraged hiking from Georgia to Rockfish Gap for about a week. Officially, 432.5 miles were closed by land managers after the storm. By February 12, the closure was reduced to just 21 miles of Trail, due to efforts of professional saw crews, A.T. Club volunteers, agency saw teams, and visiting A.T. volunteer strike teams from the neighboring region of the Trail.
Here’s a snapshot of how clubs mobilized their work to make significant improvements to the Appalachian Trail between late October 2024 and March 2025, so it could be hiked in spring 2025.
Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club (TEHCC)
Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoeing Club led 190 clean-up events and coordinated 8,043 hours of volunteer work, with no injuries, to address the 134-miles of A.T. they manage with the U.S. Forest Service and the ATC. Most of the damage from Helene was along Iron Mountain and Holston Mountain in the Shady Valley area and from Hughes Gap south to Low Gap.
More than 850 hours were spent running chainsaws to clear blowdowns (fallen trees), often complex heaps of trees. In one section with severe loss of trees, the A.T. has been temporarily relocated for hiker safety along a 5.3-mile stretch while a salvage logging operation removes debris and wildfire fuels. The Chestoa bridge at the Nolichucky River was wiped out and a 3.7-mile detour through Erwin is available to hikers, as is free ferry service supported by the ATC through mid-June.
Damage to TEHCC shelters from Helene include Cherry Gap and Moreland Gap Shelters. Moreland will be fixed but Cherry Gap was destroyed. Roan High Knob Shelter has been stabilized for ongoing work to replace 2 lower logs that were rotten; that repair work is likely deferred until the recovery work takes place addressing the red fir trees that have been impacted in the area. Unrelated to the storm, the Laurel Fork Shelter is also on the club’s list to repair since a fire in 2024.
TEHCC has engaged a lot of new members through Helene recovery work, bringing a challenge to onboard inexperienced volunteers.
TEHCC will continue to prioritize needs throughout the year as recovery work remains dynamic.
Carolina Mountain Club (CMC)
Photo credit: Carolina Mountain Club
CMC reported the worst damage of the 94-miles of the A.T. they manage occurred near Flint Gap, Rice Gap, Sams Gap, and Spivey Gap. Luckily, there was no damage to shelters or privies, nor did the club’s section experience landslides.
The club led volunteers in 5,560 safe work hours since Helene, and by February 15, all of the club’s Appalachian Trail mileage was clear of obstructions. While the club didn’t keep a full accounting, more than 1,000 large trees were removed, along with countless smaller trees that fell across the Trail.
As an example of the density of blowdowns in some locations, Paul Curtin, the A.T. Supervisor for the club, said that on a work trip to Spivey Gap in January, a good day comprised of five sawyers and their swampers clearing a quarter of a mile. In another section from Big Butt to Flint Mountain Shelter, 81 root balls (the dense collection of roots and soil at the base of a tree that can be unearthed when a tree falls, creating a dangerous scenario for the team clearing the blowdown) were counted in proximity to a four-mile stretch of Trail.
Paul points out that “Helene 2.0 continues,” with the high winds of spring taking down more damaged trees and upturning more root balls. To illustrate, he shared that at Spivey Gap the club has returned to find 50 yards of the trail obscured again, the removal of dozens more trees throughout the spring in various locations, and the associated ripping up of root balls by wind-thrown trees.
The Town of Hot Springs, which hosts the Appalachian Trail along its sidewalk, was also hard hit by the storm. The Club worked with Hot Springs Resort to host a work-day at the end of November. CMC hosted a record 130 volunteers that day, split into four groups. Volunteers cleaned up the riverside at the Resort, others cleaned debris along the river adjacent to the Appalachian Trail, a group cleared trees on the Pump Gap Trail that makes a loop with the A.T., and one group worked on the A.T. above Tanyard Gap. Three truckloads of trash were removed from the A.T. along the river, in addition to much more sorted and hauled from the resort. USFS personnel were on hand for the effort and brought trucks to move the trailside trash.
Mount Rogers AT Club (MRATC)
While the club is accustomed to taking “winter break” from trail work, this year, MRATC stayed busy when the weather was cooperative enough for the club’s crew to work.
“Our work began with a detailed assessment, similar to what was done when we first gained access to our northern section of Trail back in mid-fall. This has allowed us to target the worst areas first and avoid spending time on sections with little to no storm damage. The varying orientation and topography of the Trail has produced many startling contrasts, where relative calm and massive damage sit just around the corner from each other. We have prioritized removing any remaining Trail blockages and anywhere the Trail has moved from its original path due to brush, limbs and often giant, upturned root balls blocking the way,” reported MRATC Trail Supervisor Doug Levin.
Piedmont A.T. Hikers (PATH)
PATH’s 66-miles of the Appalachian Trail in Southwest Virginia also experienced significant impacts from the storm, and work has been regular and ongoing in clearing the Trail of blowdowns in preparation for the hiking season.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy recognized the four clubs with sections of Trail that received the full brunt of the storm and required regular coordination of activities to assure the A.T. could re-open. The recognition ceremony happened as part of the Southern Partnership Meeting, held in Blowing Rock, NC in April.
Not only did these clubs efficiently and safely handle the impacts to the Appalachian Trail, they did so during a winter that regularly served up single digit temperatures, along with frozen ground and snow. They also welcomed new volunteers.
New Volunteers, Clubs Helping Clubs, Partnership Collaboration
The outpouring of interest to volunteer to support the Appalachian Trail’s recovery from Hurricane Helene was significant.
The Carolina Mountain Club reportedly gained hundreds of members and trail workers in the wake of Helene, and said there has been an all-time high in community spirit and interest in helping.
As recently as in May, long-time collaborators in Tennessee and SW Virginia organized a reprise of Hardcore, a maintenance event that launches from Trail Days in Damascus. This year, Hardcore Helene gathered 43 volunteers, including 10 volunteers from the 2025 thru-hiker cohort, to work with TEHCC, MRATC, the Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association (ALDHA), and the U.S. Forest Service to repair Helene-impacted areas of the Trail.
In late winter, club volunteers with CMC joined forces with TEHCC for some of their workdays, and many new volunteers heeded the call through the ATC’s Volunteer Engagement Platform to join events centered on Helene recovery.
Volunteers associated with clubs from other parts of the Trail, including NBATC, PATC, RATC, ODATC, and OCVT joined in efforts over the winter to help clear the Trail of blowdowns and perform storm-related tread repairs. During these collaborative events, hundreds of trees were removed. In addition to being well-attended by volunteers, USFS personnel and ATC staff worked alongside these crews. A crew of NPS sawyers and a contract crew of professional sawyers added capacity to clean-up efforts in the south.
A.T. Cooperative Management Partners have praised the success of collaboration it has taken to re-open the Appalachian Trail for the 2025 hiking season. Essential to collective impact of the Appalachian Trail, is the necessary and ongoing communication, planning, and cooperation among all public-and-private partners. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is honored to convene and connect this system of partners to Keep the Trail Alive.