Lake Disharoon Pavilion Viewing Project

When Bill Clinton was in his 2nd term in the White House, a viewing Pavilion was built at the Disharoon Condos. It had a wonderful view of Lake Disharoon and the Mountain Vistas in the background.

Fast forward 20+ years and the ‘view’ was a solid wall of Oak, Pine, Sourwood and Sweetgum Trees, completely obscuring the Lake and Mountain view.

Start of project 7/7/21. Photos courtesy of Big Canoe Trails Committee.

As residents changed out over the years, no one really knew what the original intention/design of the Viewing Pavilion was for.

Mitch Waldman in Lake Disharoon cutting up felled trees

Sometime in 2020, Trail Committee Member (and avid Golfer), John Hansen was golfing the hole near the Pavilion and had a few minutes to walk over to it out of curiosity. He was perplexed as to why anyone would ‘sit there and stare at the trees’. This prompted him approach the Big Canoe Golf Course Superintendent Lydell Mack. They discussed how great it would be to get that view back to the way it used to be!

Great idea, BUT! Who is going to do it? Who is going to fund it? With all the terrific upgrades and maintenance planned all over Big Canoe (most notably the Creek Course Renovation, the long overdue Lake Disharoon fixes, there was no budget for this extra activity as it was not in any of the other budgets. Step in BCTC.

The BCTC Chairperson Liz Scherer, was approached and asked if the Trails Committee could help. ‘Of course’ was the answer as we are here to support the POA and residents.

A Trails Committee Project was put together in July of this year. Between July 7th and July 16th, a total of 4 workdays averaged 10 people per workday. A total of roughly 100 man hours got the job done! We had 22 different Trails Committee Members participate, some for 2, 3 or all 4 workdays. By the end of the last workday, ALL the trees in a 100’ x 200’ area were taken down from the Lake Trail to the Lake completely opening up the view to how it was decades earlier. Stone steps were also built from the Trail up to the Viewing Pavilion. It is estimated, that this project would have cost Big Canoe $20,000 if they had to have a tree service company come in to do this same work.

Each workday, we would meet at the Pavilion and go through our safety discussions and what we wanted to accomplish for the day (usually 2 ½ to 3 hours). We would split up into teams where 1 person would chain saw in a certain area, and 1-2 people would be ‘Swampers’. A swamper cuts the fallen trees into smaller pieces and hauls the debris up the hill to the debris pile, that Maintenance would pick up with equipment the next day. The team worked in some tough July heat and humidity, as well as battled mosquitos, yellow jackets and bees.

Joe Tipton (foreground) and Glenn Arthur (kneeling) working on getting the Lake Disharoon Bridge back into position with jacks and winches, along with Mitch Waldman (in the water behind the bridge) and Liz Scherer (not pictured).

Next, in August, the Lake Disharoon Bridge was still out of order from when the Lake was refilled. Part of the end of the bridge was under water, one corner not tethered and with little to no traffic for months, a hornets nest was built on it. The POA/Public Works was still strained with large tasks and projects, so the BCTC Team stepped in again to offer assistance. Using the ingenuity of Trails Member Joe Tipton, 4 members worked on August 16th to get the bridge back operational. Using jacks, winches, pipe and lumber, the bridge was set back on it’s shore footings and re-tethered, so that residents and guests could cross safely.

Onto the next project! See you on the Trails!!!