Blazing a Trail Across the River
- Claire Perkins
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
How a small town in Northeast Tennessee helped AT hikers cross the Nolichucky after Helene
When Hurricane Helene swept through Erwin, Tennessee, in September 2024, it took with it the Chestoa Pike Road Bridge, an unlikely but important strip of the Appalachian Trail. In the immediate aftermath, rafting companies and professional river guides mobilized to support search-and-rescue and recovery efforts. Meanwhile, Terry Wise, owner of Uncle Johnny’s Hostel Cabins & Camping, was busy clearing debris from his property and trying to save his business. As the immediate crisis calmed, they would band together for the cause of the trail, the river and their precious town.
Helene came at the tail end of the rafting season and at the beginning of the southbound (SOBO) season for hikers coming through Erwin. The storm showed no regard for timing or the damage it caused, destroying homes, businesses, roads and railroads and carving out a new path for the mighty waters of the Nolichucky River.
Uncle Johnny’s is situated at the corner where the Appalachian Trail meets River Road. The hostel once overlooked the Chestoa Bridge with its green handrail marking the path for hikers across the river. While Wise’s hostel, shop and cabins remained standing after Helene, many of them were unsalvageable with debris and mud piled nearly as high as a grown man is tall.
“Uncle Johnny’s is the gateway to the town for hikers,” Wise said.
In Erwin, hikers get rest, food and a break from the trail. The town gets money, business and the reward of meeting new people and introducing them to their part of the world. Losing the SOBO hikers was a significant loss to the community.
Erwin took an even bigger hit when rafting companies lost both their physical access points and their permits. As an $18 million industry in Erwin, rafting provided essential revenue for the town. The river employs around 150 guides, about a third of whom are full-time, Lela Winton, river guide for Wahoo's Adventures, said.
After months of hard work, Uncle Johnny’s reopened in February 2025, ready for the northbound (NOBO) hikers. But with the Chestoa Bridge in pieces 400 yards down the river, AT hikers were faced with a 3.6-mile detour and this wasn’t just any 3.6-mile detour. It was a road walk along the same path taken by hundreds of dump trucks and construction vehicles, carrying rock, dirt and concrete for railroad reconstruction. It was a dusty, loud, inconvenient and even potentially dangerous route.
An estimated 3000 to 4000 hikers come through Erwin each March to May. That is somewhere between 30 and 50 people a day walking against the flow of construction traffic. Wise recognized the need for a solution.
A Win for Everybody
Wise and Slayton Johnson, owner of Wahoo’s Adventures, had an idea. The two business owners partnered to run a free daily ferry to take hikers across the Nolichucky instead of around it. Using the rafting company’s existing equipment and professional river guides, the system would run safely and smoothly. Despite public access to the river remaining closed, the ferry would launch from Wise’s private property, eliminating the need for a public access permit.
“You’re basically going on the same original Appalachian Trail path. You’re just 40 feet below where you used to walk,” Wise said.
The AT is made up of a series of agreements stitched together across states. It is not owned by one individual entity. Rather, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), the largest advocate for the trail established in 1925, acts as the bridge between the entities.
Hurricane Helene was the largest natural disaster the ATC has faced in its hundred-year history. In response to the devastation and need caused by the storm, the ATC launched the Appalachian Trail Resiliency Fund.
The ferry project, sponsored by the Resiliency Fund, ran for three months, beginning at the start of NOBO season in March and finishing at the season’s end in June 2025.
The ferry offered hikers a quick and fun alternative to the 3.6-mile detour, turning a two-hour walk into a 30-second trip across the river. But the biggest win of the operation was that it enabled Wahoo’s to pay employees, Wise said.
The ferry was more than just a practical solution; it was a tourist attraction. Hikers and outdoor enthusiasts were drawn to the town of Erwin because of the ferry. Their curiosity was piqued and business owners benefited.
The only other ferry on the AT is the crossing at Kennebec River in Caratunk, Maine, making the Erwin ferry a unique experience for the hiking community.
“The rafters and the hikers don’t really mix,” Winton said. “So, this is a cool way to get to know a whole different part of our outdoor community.”
Winton helped run the ferry during its operation, taking around 30 people across the river each day. Many of the estimated 3,000 NOBO hikers who utilized the service had heard of the ferry and were excited to witness the collaborative efforts of the Erwin community as it recovered from Helene.
“It’s such a great service from the ATC,” a thru-hiker who goes by the trail name Hopscotch said. “I think a lot of people are hard on the conservancy, but they do a lot for our community.”
Despite the ferry's success, it stopped operating when funds ran dry in June 2025. SOBO hikers were left to walk the detour. Construction on the railroad concluded in September 2025, making the path less dangerous but nonetheless inconvenient.
Debris on Nolichucky shoreline Spring 2025 (Photo/Claire Perkins)
A Solutions Model
The Kennebec River Ferry in Maine is another example of a community rallying to champion safe solutions. Wise was familiar with the service and used it as a model for the Erwin ferry experience.
Like the Nolichucky, the Kennebec is not impossible to cross, but it is dangerous. When Myron Avery first envisioned the trail, he planned to have access to transportation across the river. However, throughout the years, many hikers took it upon themselves to wade across. After Alice Ference drowned in 1985, attempting to ford it, the ATC established a ferry system.
Other places along the AT or other major trails may face similar challenges due to natural disasters, climate changes or tragic accidents. As proved by Erwin and Caratunk, a ferry service is a safe alternative to dangerous conditions and inconvenient detours.
Local partnerships are essential to establishing a ferry as the service requires funding, trained river guides, permits and access to a specific crossing point.
The Erwin ferry was made possible through a partnership between the ATC, Uncle Johnny’s, Wahoo’s Adventures, Unicoi County Economic and Community Development and the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development. Through this collaboration, the service became more than a solution to a problem; it became a legacy of resilience.
The ferry service employed temporarily unemployed raft guides, boosted the local economy, served hikers from across the globe and set an example for communities that may face similar problems in the future. And it could do so again with the right support.
“I'm optimistic about the ferry,” Wise said. “It's such a cool feature to have and everybody loves it. It’s a good deal for the rafting company to get a little revenue. It helps everybody.”