Stringer\’s Ridge Stairs

Wild Trails awarded a grant to Stringer\’s Ridge (city of Chattanooga) in the form of material and labor to build two really cool sets of stairs on either side of a pedestrian only connector trail leading up to Old Baldy. The project began with Lance Steel, a local trail runner who owns and operates a right of way clearing business. Lance located a bunch of White Oak trees from a recent and local job. White Oak is noted for its slow decay time. In fact, untreated White Oak will last much longer in the elements than treated pine. Lance not only donated the lumber to the project, but he delivered it to the mill and then the cut lumber at the job site. A huge thanks goes out to Lance and his company. Here is a photo of the raw material we all had to work with:

The design of the stairs and the primary leadership of the project was volunteered by Chris Stenberg, a local construction manager working for Collier Construction,. The first job was to clear out a platform for the bottom of the stairs to rest on.

 

 

The next step was to build the stringers for the steps to rest on. Here Samuel Hammonds, a Wild Trails certified sawyer, makes it all happen.

Mike Scott and Cooper (dog) supervise (rest) as Chris cuts one of the stringers. The final step was to deck the stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks to the volunteers who made this happen: Chris Stenberg, Lance Steele, Samuel Hammonds, Jarret Kinder, Britt Reynolds, Chad Wamack, Dawson Wheeler, Pete Persolja, Jamie Hurst, and Randy and Kris Whorton.