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Recent heavy rains had created several areas of potentially dangerous washout on the trail.  Even our most experienced riders, including me,  had incidents where the bike behaved “squirrel-ly” .   Some spots were muddy, some were sandy.  Of course Georgia red clay mud can be very slick and dangerous.    Poor erosion control and  silt accumulation  were the culprits responsible for most of the problem areas.  I’d have to say that GaDOT has been lax in their responsibility to manage erosion of embankments of roads crossing the Silver Comet trail.  In fact, every problem area and potential problem in the Paulding section of the trail was associated with a road bridge.

GA92 Bridge was where I started, just west of the Hiram Trailhead.  (Sorry no photos)
We had one of our best riders warn us about this spot.  I was out there the next day, taking the morning off from work.  Soil accumulations were no longer allowing normal run off.   A slurry of mud and water was accumulating on the trail; very dangerous , very thick and very slick when wet.   Using a flat nose shovel I removed the mud from the trail.   Where practical I removed accumulations of mud adjacent to the trail,  improving drainage and restoring normal runoff of rain water.    I also improved the drainage of adjacent pools of standing water.

Tools of the Trade: work shoes, flat-nose shovel, hoe, and stiff-bristle push broom.

Tools of the Trade

Mt Olivet Rd Tunnel

Tire tracks in thick sand at Mt Olivet tunnel

You can see the danger here. Deep tire tracks in the sand.  This turned out to be much more sand than I realized when I started.  The sand was wet and heavy.  I initially had thought about using a bucket to haul the sand out, but soon realized that was not going to happen.  I elected to shovel the sand into piles as a temporary fix and removing the immediate hazard.

Shoveling the sand.

The sand piles and cleared area

Sand piles

GA 61 bridge, east of the Paulding Chamber Trailhead

Trail silt washout

This is how problems like this start. Silt and debris accumulate at the edge of trail, eventually, run-off begins to flow over the trail rather than next to it. To correct problems like this I use a flat-nose shovel, starting usually at the low-end of the run off and create a scallop in the soil next to the trail. This forms a shallow trench for the water to run off the trail, rather than across. (click photo to see detail) If the mud not too thick I can remove the mud and create the drainage channel adjacent to the trail with one shovel stroke. Just removing the mud on the trail will not fix the problem, just temporarily patch it.

Cleaned section with run-off channel.

The worst section at GA61 bridge was on the east side. A large section of mud was spreading across the trail.

GA61 worst section.

Mud removed, channel created

Not an ideal fix, the mud has been removed and a shallow channel created next to the trail.  Much more work will need to be done in this area.   Soil accumulation will need to be removed and silt fences added to manage the erosion.

The Brushy Mountain tunnel on the Silver Comet Trail has been a mucky mess, of varying degrees, for several  years.   We’ve had riders go down in the slick muck and the recent rains, of record intensity,  have washed a lot of mud into the tunnel.   Many of us now just refuse to ride through the tunnel as the passage will leave  bike and rider filthy.   I don’t have the time to clean the bike after these trips nor do I appreciate having my back side splattered with muck.  For the Polk County community there is a negative impact,  many cyclist will no longer make the trip to Rockmart.  Calls to the county have had no results, perhaps because the tunnel is in Paulding County, not Polk?

I miss those trips to Rockmart and some of the road loops that we’d use the tunnel to get there.  Our primary distance route, the Land of Sunsets Century also went through the Brushy Mtn Tunnel. This photo, taken in May 2004,  shows the mud flowing onto the trail.  The problem has gotten much worse over the last six years.    This is really a shame, as it is a beautiful section of trail to ride on, with  jagged rock walls covered with native plants, mosses and ferns lining this section of the trail. 

My plan for finding the tunnel entrance from the road worked well.   I could see the route track from the Wednesday ride and the two waypoints I had set to mark the tunnel entrance and the point I’d have to hike to access the trail.

Above the tunnel entrance I found an existing network of silt fences.   The top of the tunnel entrance and trail below are in the center of the photo.  Not easy to see, the black horizontal bar is the top of the tunnel and gray is trail concrete.

This is a photo of the bog that is feeding the waterfall.  The water flows out the channel (lower left of the photo) and under the natural bridge I was standing on.   As you can see from the photo.  This ravine drains a rather large area.  No way this was going to be diverted.  Fortunately, the ravine above the tunnel entrance drains a much smaller area and not a continual problem.

Here’s what it looks like.  When I left it was actually working and channeling the water down the side of the trail.  It’s not finished and temporary at best. A meager effort, but it might help for the Summer.  We had a good rain tonight so that will be a good test.

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