By now everyone is aware of the damage Hurricane Helene brought to the mountain communities in and around Asheville, North Carolina and the surrounding Pisgah National Forest. Augusta, GA was hit hard by the storm too, and while flooding wasn’t as widespread or catastrophic there as it was in western North Carolina, thousands of trees rooted in rain-soaked soil were toppled by the strong winds that whipped through the area.
“We had over 100 miles of trail here, but unfortunately hurricane Helene took us down to none,” Angela Allen told me. Allen is the Communications Chair and work party coordinator for the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) Southern Off Road Biking Association (SORBA) chapter. The volunteer group is responsible for maintaining more than 100 miles of singletrack, and had just finished their annual three-month-long foliage maintenance work cleaning every inch of those trails the weekend before the storm hit. Their celebration of a job well done was short lived.
Just this week, Augusta Mayor Garnett L. Johnson held a press conference with representatives from FEMA to give an update on recovery efforts following the record-breaking storm. Nearly a month after Helene, which initially left the entire city without power, communications remain limited. “More than 95% of our residents still may remain without internet, and cell service to this date still remains to be spotty in some areas. Thousands of homes and properties sustained significant damage, and tragically, some of our fellow Augustans lost their lives,” he said. In the press conference, City Administrator Tameka Allen noted that the city had only recently been able to restore all traffic signals to full functionality.
Jake Veriato, SORBA CSRA President, said that local mountain bikers got to work immediately, clearing trees off their own homes, driveways, and roadways, and helping neighbors do the same. After some time, there was a desire to get at least a small sliver of singletrack open for mountain biking again.
“A lot of them just wanted a break from helping the community and wanted to help the community in another way, which is to get back out into the forest.” For many area riders, a quick mountain bike ride was exactly what they needed to recharge.
SORBA CSRA rallied 186 volunteers, including 26 certified Sawyer teams, to focus on getting the Canal singletrack trail re-opened. The flowy singletrack trail, located between the Augusta canal and Savannah river, is the only mountain bike trail within the city limits, which made it a good trail for volunteers to focus on. Allen and Canal trail champion John Pilcher “went out there two separate days to literally climb under and over logs [tying flags] so you can see where the trail went,” Allen said. All told, 501 trees were cleared and 746 volunteer hours were logged.
“We thought that would be the best for the trail community to get at least one trail system open and we achieved that,” Veriato said.
Looking beyond the Canal trail, most Augusta-area singletrack lies on land that’s under state and federal land management. “We still don’t have access to the Forest Service trails in the Long Cane Ranger District, which is okay, they are working through it,” said Veriato.
SORBA CSRA is still in triage mode, assessing which trails are even accessible at this point, and whether infrastructure like bridges and signage will need to be repaired. No doubt there are many more trees that need to be cleared.
“It’s easy to see the long road we have ahead of us. I mean, you’re talking thousands upon thousands of trees, thousands of man hours, thousands of days out there,” Veriato said. “So yeah, it’s going to be tough.”
To volunteer, or donate funds to SORBA CSRA to help offset the cost of fuel and equipment, visit sorbacsra.org.
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