Laurel Creek Trail extension starts

The Johnson County Trails Association (JCTA) has begun extending the Laurel Creek Trail in Laurel Bloomery to meet up with the Virginia Creeper Trail in Damascus. The association began working in mid-February, having received permission Jan. 13 from the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in Virginia, according to JCTA President Philip Burtt-Henderson. Until now, the Laurel Creek Trail ended at the Tennessee-Virginia line. The trail from the state line to Damascus is on federal land and hadn't been cleaned up after Helene. The extension will add approximately 1.25 miles to the Laurel Creek Trail, doubling its length. The plan is to connect the trails a little east of Mountain City Road and Jeb Stuart Highway's intersection, Burtt-Henderson said. He aims to have the first phase of the project, clearing half a mile, complete by the end of 2026 or the start of 2027. He then hopes to have the rest cleared by the end of 2028. "That's a very aggressive timeline," he said. The new trailway, like the existing trailway, will follow the path Laurel Railway once took. The railway went out of use around 1920, giving a century for trees to grow and landslides to obstruct the path, Burtt-Henderson said. There are no longer rails on the path, but occasionally JCTA finds railroad spikes. Telegraph poles can be spotted amongst the trees, he said. Burtt-Henderson said there was a plan twenty years ago to connect the trails, but it fell through. "There was a federal earmark used to develop the Laurel Creek Trail as it exists now. And part of the goal or agreement — it was just verbal — was that the Tennessee advocates, like Johnson County Trails Association, would bring it to the Virginia-Tennessee line," he explained. "Then organizations, I don't know which ones, would bring it from the Virginia line." "I think as personalities changed and priorities shifted, that just kind of fell by the wayside," he concluded. Rails to Trails Conservancy provided a $10,000 grant to JCTA to help fund the project. It is applying for other grants, including a $50,000 "Hometown Grant" from T-Mobile. JCTA plans on finishing the extension before starting on its other long-term goals, Burtt-Henderson said. One of those long-term goals is a trail welcome center. At the March 19 Johnson County Commissioners' meeting, the county unanimously approved partnering with the JCTA to pursue a $250,000 ThreeStar Grant for the development of a trail center with no match required. Burtt-Henderson said on March 19 that the proposed center site used to be home to the Emory and Henry University president, and the center would be staffed by volunteers. The county also unanimously approved a resolution supporting the trial extension into Virginia. County Mayor Larry Potter said these projects have been worked on for years. Thomas Sherrill contributed reporting for this story.