Is a Hot Springs river access point in jeopardy? MountainTrue eyes improvements

HOT SPRINGS - For Madison County residents, other Western North Carolina residents and tourists alike, Hot Springs serves as one of the best getaways for recreation on the French Broad River.

But the future of a Hot Springs river access point is up in the air.

A MountainTrue official met with members of the public earlier this month to inform them of the latest news on Madison County's public river access points.

The French Broad River Paddle Trail is a 140-mile recreational river corridor flowing south to north between Rosman and Newport, Tennessee, managed by partnering government agencies, regional nonprofits, local businesses, and individual volunteers. Of the 140 miles, 115 are in North Carolina.

Those partnering agencies and nonprofits work to create, maintain and improve public river access points, campsites, signage and information, as well as removing garbage and debris, and host events focused on celebrating and learning more about the river, according to MountainTrue's Jack Henderson.

Henderson serves as MountainTrue's French Broad Paddle Trail manager and was in Hot Springs at Pine Hall earlier this month to meet with residents about the river access point, as well as to discuss the trail as a whole.

Henderson said he thinks of the Madison County portion of the trail as "the whitewater and wilderness area."

"You've got a lot of solitude on the river, but you've got a lot of non-whitewater, too," Henderson said. "You've got a lot of nice, relatively flat sections."

Roughly 30 miles of the trail runs through Madison County, with the first access point appearing at Redmon Dam in Marshall. The next public river access point is at Barnard Park in Marshall, near Section Nine of the river, followed by the Stackhouse Road access point in Marshall, and finally the Nantahala Outdoor Center access point in Hot Springs.

The Nantahala Outdoor Center access point sits below the bridge at river right when coming into downtown Hot Springs. Many visitors use the parking area at Nantahala Outdoor Center riverside outpost to access the river. The parking area is privately owned but was open to public use.

But, according to Henderson, there is no agreement securing long-term public access between river officials and the outfitter moving forward.

According to Henderson, he has been working with Nantahala Outdoor Center to bring public ownership of the property to the town, the county or a land trust.

"They've been disinterested in that for valid reasons of just not wanting to give up ownership of the property," Henderson said.

What Nantahala Outdoor Center is potentially interested in is a public use easement.

According to Henderson, the public use easement would allow Nantahala Outdoor Center to retain private ownership of the site, but it would ensure public access for a term of 25 years or more.

"That really does two things. One of which, it ensures that public access can never be taken away in that space, regardless of the ownership or the condition of the property. It will always allow people to park there for river access and potentially the AT as well," Henderson said, referring to the Appalachian Trail.

"But also, kind of more importantly I think to them, and one of our bargaining chips in this, is that it allows us to use grant funds to improve that site. Most grant funders, they don't want to throw money at a property that can get pulled out of public access."

According to Henderson, the public use easement is similar to a conservation easement, but instead it will ensure public access.

The two parties are currently conducting appraisals for the easement project, Henderson said.

"We're optimistic that we're going to sell that, and then if that's the case, we would have a public entity or a land trust hold that easement," said Henderson, adding that RiverLink has offered to hold the easement.

Additionally, Hot Springs' bridge replacement is another part that figures into MountainTrue and river officials' discussions.

Mayor Abby Norton said TGS officials now expect the project to begin October 2024.

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Hot Springs Zoning Administrator Ben Houser said the bridge work will be extensive.

"There is a 2-inch sewer line on the existing bridge," Houser said. "DOT doesn't allow utilities on the new bridges anymore, so we're actually going to have to go under the river instead of attaching it to the new bridge."

According to Houser, TGS Engineers has been contracted by DOT to perform the utility operations, and a different company will perform the roadway and bridge portion of the project.

Henderson said he spoke to NCDOT engineers, and the plan is to relocate the bridge roughly 1 footprint of the current bridge upstream from its current location.

"What it does do, for river access, is it's going to allow us an opportunity to prospectively work within the right of way of the current location," Henderson said. "So, if you're crossing the bridge into town, there's going to be space that's prospectively available for strategic, organized and planned use."

But the Hot Springs access point is not the only access point MountainTrue is focused on, as the organization is aiming to shore up Marshall's river access points, too.

"Marshall is infrastructurally kind of challenging with river access," Henderson said. "You've got a dam on the upstream side. You've got basically a seawall at river right, kind of like a railroad reinforcement wall that makes taking out even harder. You've got the dam at river left there.

"So, when people are taking multiday trips in that corridor, we usually advise people to take out above Marshall, portage all the way around Capitola Dam, and also Redmon Dam. There's no real safe portage around Redmon Dam right now. We're working to improve that.

Henderson said MountainTrue has secured funding to create a conceptual plan and pre-construction site design at Redmon Dam, the scope of which will include improved parking, established access areas, signage and passive park infrastructure like picnic tables and angling areas.

"We're interested in making river access better, and we're also interested in making it a place where people can go down and have lunch and relax by the water or fish in the water, even if they're not paddling downstream," Henderson said.

Great Trail State

In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly officially established the French Broad River Paddle Trail as a state trail.

In 2021, a coalition of nonprofit organizations throughout the state lobbied for the state to be recognized as the Great Trails State.

"They were trying to raise awareness for how cool that was for our state, but also trying to get some funding together," Henderson said. "That coalition was successful in lobbying our state legislature to appropriate quite a bit of funding for the state parks program, which oversees the state trail program, and also for the partner organizations. There's one partner organization for each state trail. MountainTrue is the partner organization for the French Broad State Trail."

In addition to that successful lobbying in 2021, the state also allotted additional funding to the state trail program in 2023. That state appropriation will be focused on investing in the trail system to tackle deferred maintenance, including buildings bridges and trails and improving access points, Henderson said.

"Hot Springs is a river town," Henderson said. "We're on the water. It's right there. But there's surprisingly kind of little public access. In terms of having a place where residents can walk on down to the water from town without crossing the bridge, I think has been identified for quite a while in terms of master plans and just informal public input. So, we're hoping to capitalize on that in terms of the bridge replacement."

Johnny Casey is the Madison County communities reporter for The News-Record & Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jcasey@newsrecordandsentinel.com.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Is a Hot Springs river access point in jeopardy?