Friday we will head into the Green River Gamelands once again to finish the clearing of those trails. Also a couple of hand rails need repairing. John says there are some 28 blow downs - some pretty nasty - that need clearing. We will form at least two saw groups to work from different locations, and others to work the rails and such. We will meet at 8 AM at the Friends of the Library once again - around in back. This is on the Spartanburg Hwy a block or so before you get to Upward Road - on the East side of the road. A big sign out front with numbers on it, but I don't remember that they are - what are they, Dave? As ever, please let me know if you will be out. Bill

Hi Guys, Skip is out of town and he has asked me to organize this weeks work. So lets have fun!! From various source I gather that many of our regulars are going to be out of town, so I need for all of you who plan to work to let me know ASAP that I can count on you in making the plan. We have three choices depending on who shows up 1.- Back to the Log pile -Shelter 2.- Cutting down trees on two sections of the AT 3.- MST South. Build trail south of Balsam Gap. As you can see all have the same meeting place- Home Depot Exit 44 at 8AM. Howard, please bring your saw. Frank I will let you know meeting place and equip. to bring tomorrow. If weather is bad, look for cancellation before 6:30 AM on Friday. Piet

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

Ladies and Gentlemen: I will be asking Mr. Munoz to take over the Crew for this Wednesday (10th of Nov.). The Crew will go to Chestnut Cove O/L...then take the south bound MTS trail in about 30 minutes to work on two very wet areas...drainage...maybe rock crush etc.; then work on 200 yards (or so) narrow trail doing side hilling etc. Please REPLY to Jorge's email... jmunoz@buncombe.main.n Please MEET at French Broad Overlook on BRP at 8:00 AM. Hope by next week we will (finally) get to High Rocks....on the AT. Be safe...Hope we can get a good crew out tomorrow. Regards, JS

Post Work Trip Report: On a crisp, clear and beautiful morning Don Christensen, Bob Poe, Charlie Hamberger and myself headed on MTS Chestnut Cove heading South. The last jobs done on said section where nice and visible so nice that the two wet spots reported had been already taken care on the previous work day as were many of of side hillings. We did walk and scouted for 45 minutes and started back taking care of spotty areas that needed improvements. In total we did 84 yards of treadwork and cribbing combined. We all came to the conclusion that our last day of work on that section was not acknowledged by the scheduler. So our day was was finished by 12.00 P.M. Four hours work and one hour driving time. Jorge

nyone interested in joining the trail crews contact: Hendersonville area-Bill Newton, 828-693-4033, Brevard area-Dick Johnson, 828-884-3685, Asheville area-Skip Shelton, 828-891-3264 or Piet Bodenhorst, 828-298-8371, Misha Lazer, 828-259-9729, lazerm@bellsouth.net , Mike Lang, 828-658-1914, mlang626@buncombe.main.nc.us

Save the date - February 5, 2005 - for the FMST Annual meeting in Greensboro, NC. This years guest speaker will be Deirdre F. Hewitt with the RTCA program under the National Park Service in Asheville, NC. She will tell us all about the RTCA program; you can visit here for more info: http://www.nps.gov/rtca/ . The FMST is discussing along with the Department of Parks and Recreation in using this program for the MST East Plan. This meeting of Task Forces has proven to benefit the MST with reports and planning for the new year. Information will be mailed out in the near future about this meeting. Thanks for your time. Jeff Brewer www.ncmst.org

Last Friday, the 5th of November, a very large and hearty group of solid volunteers showed up at the site of Vanderbilt's old recreational lodge to begin Phase 1 of an ambitious plan to clear more than a half century of rhododendron and beech tree growth from much of the old complex. Under the gaze of Mt. Pisgah and a Carolina blue sky, these giving souls braved high winds and early morning cold conditions. Trail Crews and hikers from Asheville, Brevard and Hendersonville, joined in a day of grand effort. About everyone in Henderson and Transylvania counties arrived on top of the Pisgah Ledges with a chainsaw; I believe there were more saw operators than Republicans in the new Congressional Senate! People camping below along Yellow Gap Road awoke to the throaty roar of Stihl motors blasting out their noise in the chilly morning air. Approaching from Bent Creek on the BRP, I could see a blue haze from the saws exhaust being blown off the old Lodge site. Arriving late, it took me about a half hour to find a parking place without having to hike over from the Pisgah Inn parking lot or up from Elk Pasture to participate in all the activity. Not only was there an abundance of saws gnawing away at the rodys but also there was a line of ant like humans dragging and hauling the felled debris more than a hundred yards to a giant, heavy duty wood chipper (a machine that would make Saddam Hussein very proud) operated by the Park Service staff. Around 10:30, the limbs, trees, snags and logs began piling up almost as high as the summit of Mt. Pisgah and some of the leaders began to worry about not having the proper aircraft warning lights installed on this ever growing pile of leafy green foliage. The "ants" were trying to swamp out as fast as the 1200 sawyers were cutting and they just about caught up until the lunch break. As usual, after lunch most volunteers begin to slow down, including the chainsaw specialists and the Park Service boys who returned after an hour lunch, fired up the giant chipper on for a few more minutes. Soon they departed, hauling off the chipper and all the Park Service crew, assuming, we think, to return another day to reduce the ever growing mountain of wood and leaves. Lots of hard labor went into this effort Friday and we personally thank Bill Newton for keeping three quarters of his big Friday crew at home so that everyone else could have a parking place at the Buck Spring Overlook. Outstanding work from most of the real 58 who began work near 8:00 AM under very cold and wind chilled conditions...Already, unseen foundations have begun to show up and the last and only standing structure of old man Vanderbilt's, the spring house, is visible below the main Lodge site, now with all the growth removed around the original spring and structure. Enjoy. JS

Hi all you lucky people. I just wanted to bring you up to date on how everything is coming on the shelter. Three large locust logs are at the site. Two of these form the sills that will be on top of the foundation posts that we put in so rapidly. The privy is in place and, I understand, it has been christened. The trail to the privy is finished and all of the Killer Trees on the tent-pad trail are cut. Unfortunately, I have a number of week-end meetings to attend and cannot schedule another session to start putting logs in place until the week-end of Nov 20-21. Let me know if that works for you and let's all hope for good weather! Thank you! Howard

A record of each person certified to operate a chainsaw on trails that the CMC maintains has been added to the web site. The list is intended to serve several purposes. First, the list will show for the first time the names and location of the sawyers that are available to contact to help clear the trails that we are responsible for. Second, the listing also accumulates for the first time our expiration dates for the three certifications that you must have to remove trees for the Forest Service and National Park Systems in our region. The three certifications are: Sawyer, First Aid and CPR. The typical terms of certification are 3 years for sawyer, 2 years for First Aid and 1 year for CPR. the listing may viewed with Usernumber and Password at www.carolinamtnclub.org/members/members.asp .

This Friday we will join with the CMC Asheville crew to begin the restoration of the Buck Springs Lodge site. This will be the beginning of a very long project - the first phase of which is to clear the land where some 10 buildings once stood. We will be doing sawing, weedeating, removal of debris to a chipper etc. I will make up three saw teams as requested by Piet (no one take offense, please) and we will assign areas to work so the job can be done safely. Others will run weedeaters and still others are needed to haul the cuttings to the chipper. Note the two attachments from Piet. Should be a fun and different kind of day. We need all the bodies we can muster, so if at all possible, please try to make it this week. We will meet at the ranger station at 8 and car pool on up to the lodge site from there. As ever, please let me know if you will be out this week. Bill

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

OK: We will try to go to the AT again and High Rocks via Whispering G. We have a delima, however. 1) Bad weather; 2) Overdose on late TV due to General Elections Returns Tuesday evening and early morning Wednesday: If bad weather, there will be an early email message for an abort. If you guys want to stay in and sleep due to # 2) above please VOTE your choice. If we have enough to do the job we will plan to MEET at Weaverville at 8:00 AM. We will ask Jorge to bring a saw and pass this message to Mr. Hamberger; everyone else bring trail tools. Should there not be enough people planning to come out, I will get a second email out to everyone before late afternoon Tuesday. I have a very busy day with voting, doctors and lab work so look for the message late PM Tuesday. As usual a rapid REPLY will help. Hope we get a good crew out Wednesday. JS

Looks like a very small "Turnout" potential for Wednesday. We will have four out so we are NOT going to work at H. Rocks on the AT since that project will take a few more people than what we have. So let's MEET at Folk Art Center at 8:00 AM. We will meet Mr. Munoz at Craven Gap (MST) trail junction a few minutes later. I will call Jorge around 6:50 AM to see if it is raining in that area. Be on alert for an "Abort" for rain around 7:00 AM. JS

Post Work Report: We braved a "weak" gray sky today with greeting Barth, Charlie and Jorge to the diminished Crew and stayed away, again, from High Rocks due in part to too small a crew to accomplish what we need to do there. Instead we hit north of Craven Gap and ended at Haw Creek, installing and cleaning much needed water and silt bars. A lot of work up through 11:30 AM when we got down to H. Creek O/L. 6 new large bars, two good sized silts and more than a dozen old bars cleaned and drainage ditch improved. Charlie and Barth returned with me to F. Art Center to help remove the very large and long oak tree that has plagued the "nature trail" there. With a lot of their help (saw got really pinched" and a borrowed saw from the Park Service Maintenance Crew, we got the tree removed (love that big 20" bar on the Stihl Pro). Barth and Charlie did a lot of work on what was to be a less than 20 minute project. Good day, despite the rain. Thanks guys. Official Report follows. JS

Mile Lang's Monday Work Crew

Let's take a drive up to Hot Springs and work on the Pump Gap Loop Trail for a change. I understand that there is an assortment of work needed. We'll meet at 8am at the Weaverville McDonalds. Please let me know if you wish to attend. Mike

Work Completed: -Removed 10 trees including a large quadruple blow down about 1/4 mile beyond the shelter that had not yet been reported. We examined the destroyed privy and planned for its repair.

Work Remaining: -We will return next week to make repairs on the privy. Could be more trees down beyond where we stopped going north to Bluff Mtn.