By Michael Cox (SCC Sand Rock Rep) - A common theme in our trail days for some time to come will be about controlling erosion and this trail day was no different. With a walk through the Fun Wall and Holiday Block areas it’s easy to see the amount of run off we are getting. Some hardy volunteers managed to reposition the downed tree next to Kennel Club to help slow down the erosion plus several small water bars were installed close by to slow the water.

Headquarters for the Sand Rock spring trail day.

Fireplace and Muscle Beach received its usual dose of work as well as the main trails leading into the park. Also some work went into a lesser used area this time, the Islands (Thins Daddy, Fake Plastic Trees). Erosion control work was completed and some hard fought trails were tackled to deliver much needed mulch to the area, if you haven’t been down there lately it’s worth the trip... It seems that every year we are removing some half chopped or precariously fallen tree. This year we had a large pine tree that someone had chopped down (yes with an ax) and left hanging dangerously on the rocks next to Champagne Jam. Gene Hood was kind enough to remove it for us. Big thanks also to The Prez. Paul Morley and Kelly Dalton for replacing old hardware on Rabies, Whammy, and Super Grover.....

The Sunwall trail was a great project to see completed. We have been able to patch it up the last few times but I really wanted to tackle this one now and some great volunteers showed up for it! Words from one of our volunteers; Jason Plemmons ”Several troublesome areas of the park were diligently manicured to perfection by professional landscape specialists, climbing gym owners, carpenters and the like. Needless to say the trail to the Sun Wall shouldn't need any attention for quite some time. Having had a couple thousand pounds of rocks and trees put in place to form water breaks, so as to slow down the weathering of our trails. Any and all logs used were from the tree cut down by vagabonds that was leaning on the rocks, turning a real negative into a positive!!!!”

We had a final count of 147 volunteers, that’s amazing, thank you all! The A-Team from Adrenaline Climbing really showed up again with 65 volunteers! Two Boy Scout troops were in attendance and contributed a massive amount of work as well. By the end of the day we had managed to move over 40 yards of mulch! This year the traditional award for the strangest piece of trash was collected by submitting the classic bucket with bathroom seat attached to it… after expenses over $650 were raised to help the SCC!

A huge thanks goes out to Alabama Outdoors for all the chalk balls we were throwing around plus the Petzl; gear including a harness, some sweet knives, a helmet, a reverso, and a grigri. AO also donated the Kelty tarp and sleeping bag and the Black Diamond Quick draw set. Thank you Adam Henry and First Avenue Rocks for supplying items including a very nice rope. Southeastern Outfitters in Atlanta continues to help out this Alabama crag by donating several goodies including some much loved SIG bottles. Also a supporter from Atlanta, D's Holds donated a sweet set of handmade climbing holds! Starr's Real Pit BBQ of Centre provided lunch and the tab was picked up by the Cherokee County Parks Board, thank you Scooter Howell!