Pinnacle View Trail
In August 2002, the North Carolina Department of State Parks hired the Unturned Stone to rehabilitate three spurs of the Pinnacle View Trail. The spurs all converged at an overlook, the only one in the park offering a view of the Pinnacle, as seen above. Over the course of five weeks, our five person crew built one hundred new steps and rehabbed almost a thousand feet of trail. We demolished the old masonry that supported the railings at the overlook and replaced it with new columns built around specially constructed steel skeletons. The finished product is a beautiful trail that fits seamlessly into the natural landscape and is now much safer for hikers and sightseers.
These two photographs are taken from roughly the same point on the trail. The left hand image shows two of the spurs before we began work. Erosion has exposed the bottom of a fence post and made the left hand trail impassable except for the most athletic of hikers. The right hand image shows the same two spurs upon completion. Note the same fence post, once again secured in the ground. We added several steps to both trails and re-graded the treadways. To prevent further erosion damage, we diverted drainage off the trails. The project was slowed by rain in the final phases, but the trails drained perfectly and no erosion occurred.
About half of the stone we used was found in the immediate area of the project. The rest was gathered from other parts of the park and transported to the worksite by hand. We hiked the trail many, many times over the course of five weeks. Some of the larger stones were moved with hand trucks.
Nicknamed ‘aliens’ for their many arms, these steel skeletons were custom built for us by an Asheville welder. They are bolted directly into the ledge and the columns are built around them. The alien arms extend to the edge of the masonry and hold the railings in place.
Should weather or vandalism make repairs necessary, the old railings can be unbolted and easily replaced.