If you go on the Little Cataloochee Trail now, you'll see some great improvements. Previously the trail from the Dan Cook Cabin to Davidson Gap was a sorry mess; it was rutted and muddy. It's a steady uphill made harder by the state of the trail.

Now, the park has turnpiked the tread above areas where water was accumulating, trucked in 70 tons of gravel to replace material of the former road that had eroded away, then added water bars to keep the new materials from eroding also. The resulting trail is smoother, looks better and doesn't allow silt and sediment to wash down into streams, so there's an environmental component to the work as well.

Turnpiking is a new word for me. The fellow in the picture is Tobias Miller, the North Carolina Trail Supervisor. He's standing on a turnpike section with logs on both sides.  The other picture is of very long, shallow steps, designed for horse traffic. Hopefully, all this work will withstand the onslaught of horses.