Leave No Trace: Hiking trail opens at Cheaha park to take hikers to highest point in Alabama
By Kirsten Fiscus, Star Staff Writer, kfiscus@annistonstar.com
Cheaha State Park, AL
Standing a little over 6 feet tall, sporting sunglasses and bright green shorts, Bigfoot on Saturday strolled through Cheaha State Park’s woods no longer posing for blurry, out of focused photos, but rather crisp selfies.
He came for Cheaha State Park’s first Bigfoot Bio Bash, where local runners participated in a 5K and fun run while others enjoyed the unveiling of a new trail.
Mandy Pearson, a naturalist at Cheaha, called herself the “dreamer” of the event but quickly resigned to having a lot of help from other staff at the park. Under Pearson’s direction, Cheaha became the bridge between other Alabama state parks and a program known as Leave No Trace.
Skip Essman, the state advocate for Leave No Trace, said without Pearson only a small number of parks would be partnered with the program.
“I had been trying for 12 years to get the parks on board with this,” Essman said. “Mandy called us about becoming a partner and we immediately jumped on the opportunity. She held a meeting for other naturalists from other parks in the state, and within the last six months, we now have every park partnered with us.”
The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics became a nonprofit group in 1994, but the concept behind the organization began more than 40 years ago, according to Essman.
“We are an environmental education program,” Essman said. “The Leave No Trace program teaches outdoor ethics, like not leaving trash in the woods, being respectful to those around you and nature. Things like that.”
Environmental education was Pearson’s goal from the beginning for the event.
“I had this idea four years ago when I worked at the Birmingham Zoo,” she said. “They said they loved it but didn’t feel it was for them. I approached the Jacksonville State University field school, and they told me the same thing.”
Each time Pearson approached an organization with the event idea, she was turned down but was offered suggestions to add to the program, she said.
“JSU said I think you should hold onto that and add a 5K,” she said. “After that I added the conservation aspect to it. It wasn’t long before I paired Cheaha’s mascot, Bigfoot, to the event as well. Soon it became a 10-ring circus,” she joked.
Pearson unveiled the new trail at the summit of Cheaha by cutting a vine. Building the trail was a two year process.
“Two winters ago I flagged the trail,” she said about marking trees in a route she felt would make a good path.
The half-mile trail is the first to lead to the highest point in Alabama, according to Assistant Park Superintendent Justin Howard.
“It was kind of silly that we would have to send people to the highest point of the mountain on a road,” he said. “Eventually, we want to connect all the trails here so at any point in the park, at the cabins or the motel, you can hike to the top.”
Howard spent many off-the-clock hours finishing the trail in time for the event.
“We had to install all of the trail ethics signs, cut drainage ditches so the runners wouldn’t be running through mud, and make sure the path was well marked,” he said. “I probably worked 80 hours this week and well into the night most days.”
While building the path, students from JSU’s geography club spent many Saturdays volunteering their time, Pearson said. Xavier DeKarske, a senior geography major, was involved in the project from day two, he said.
“We started at the edge of the woods and we did everything with hand tools,” he said. “We used a sling blade to cut away the brush, and axes to cut down trees. At first it was intimidating to do it all by hand, but by the end we were fighting over who would get to cut through the next tree. Using hand tools allowed us to leave no trace.”
The project took about a semester and a half, DeKarske said.
“It was really rewarding to work our way into the forest and by the end of the day walk back through all our hard work and see the fruits of our labor,” he said.
As for Bigfoot, visitors to Cheaha might be able to spot him or several of his kind along the new trail, Howard said.
“We are trying to teach people to leave no trace,” He said. “Bigfoot’s been doing it for years.”
Staff writer Kirsten Fiscus: 256-235-3563256-235-3563. On Twitter @kfiscus_star.