Deep in the woods of Santa Claus Mountain between Cave Spring and Cedartown, volunteers were busy Sunday afternoon creating a new off-road section of the Pinhoti Trail.

Rick Moon, president of the Georgia Pinhoti Trail Association from Dalton, was joined by Larry Madden, Cave Spring, Ricky Flowers, Cedartown and Marty Dominy from Toomsboro to help work on a half-mile section of trail in the middle of a 960 acre tract that was acquired by the Conservation Fund in the spring of 2012.

“We’re about ready to blaze it. It’s walk-able, not in the pristine shape we want it to be, but it’s getting there pretty quickly, Moon said.”

The Pinhoti Trail was conceived more than 30 years ago to fulfill the original dream of having a footpath up and down the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Alabama.

The section where Madden, Moon, Dominy and Flowers were working Sunday, off Santa Claus Rd. south of Cave Spring, will eliminate four miles of road walking.

Most of the Pinhoti from Cave Spring through Rome to Simms Mountain off Huffaker Rd. involves road walks.

“The more people we can get to come out and help us obviously the more we can do,” Moon said. The Pinhoti in Georgia has been constructed to accommodate equestrian and mountain bike use as well as traditional hikers. “That’s given us a lot broader volunteer base to build, maintain and actually enjoy the trail,” said Moon.

Moon said that the Pinhoti is already home to three major adventure races. “Adventure sports and the Pinhoti have come together at the same time and this is a rare trail system to have this many miles point to point,” Moon said. “A guy looking to run 100 miles, you can’t find that just every where and we’re getting a lot of national and international recognition because of that fact.”