On October 6th, Friends of Blackwater partnered with the Forest Service for a volunteer day in the Otter Creek Wilderness Area. While we didn’t get the massive workforce we were hoping for, we partnered with the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards to work on 1.6 miles of the Shavers Mountain Trail down in the Otter Creek Wilderness area. In total we were able to cut-out about a dozen fallen trees, drain and de-berm a pair of switchbacks and drainage seeps, and re-bench a 30 foot long stretch of degraded trail.
The Shavers Mountain Trail is 10 miles long and rated as strenuous. It runs from Route 33 at the Alpena Gap, into the heart of the Otter Creek wilderness and traverses the ridge of 3740 foot high Shavers Mountain, offering some great views of the Otter Creek valley below. As the leaves fall of the trees, the views and solitude should only get better and better.
