We are going to the Carl Sandburg NP to remove some 75 small trees that are diseased this Friday. They need to be cut down and burned as there seems to be some danger of bugs in them. Then again if the wind is blowing and the temp is as low as they predict we may just stoke the fire and stay home.... Wrote a note to Randy Burgess saying how much we appreciate Patrick what he has done to organize the volunteers and the interest shown in the trails. Hope the interest in the trails does not go away if and when he has to return to wherever. Bill

Folks, Latest input from Alan is that there is that out West there is considerable snow on the ground and it is staying. That means the roads up to Davenport gap will be covered with snow and ice as will the trail. Not good working conditions, so lets call off the workday for tomorrow. Skip

Folks, The weather Gods have been good to us, so the road into Harmons Den should be in decent shape. Let's take advantage of that, and finish up the tread repair work on the AT section North of the new shelter. We will go in at the shelter site again ( unless someone knows the bushwack trail in from Max Parch road ) and continue working North toward the second bridge. Reports from the last time we worked this area is that there are lots of roots to be taken out or covered up. This part of the trail will be on one of the ATC conference hikes, so we want to put it in real good shape. Bring digging tools and loppers. Won't need a chain saw, but if you have a small hand saw, you might want to bring it. Asheville people meet at Home Depot at exit 44 of I-40 at 8;00. Hendersonville folks at Ingles at 7:20. Please let me know if you are coming. A good sized crew will finish this section on Friday, so please come if you can. Skip

Folks, I just got a note from Alan Frank that West of us they are getting snow. That might make it tough to get into the new shelter site. He is going to up-date me this evening, but not to worry. If we can't go to the new shelter site, we will go to Davenport Gap and finish the work from last week. Meeting places and time is the same. S

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

We had a great annual meeting in Greensboro this past Saturday. We took a look at 2004 accomplishments and set the foundation for 2005 and beyond for the MST. I wanted to take the time to share some up coming dates for 2005 with you.

April 1-3 with the UNC Outing Club. May 6-8 May 13-15 July 22-24 with the FMST Board and promotions by Backpacker Magazine

You will need to RSVP with Allen de Hart at 919-496-4771 so we can have enough tools and campsites reserved. We hope to add more dates, but wanted to share these with you now.

On May 14, 2005 we hope to have a ribbon cutting ceremony and official designate the MST from NC-18 to Devils Garden Overlook. Keep in mine that this is a tentative date set for now.

February 19, March 7, March 19, April 4, and April 16 - please contact Bob Benner at 828-437-6635 to RSVP.

We welcome you to become a Patron Member of the FMST - download your form at www.ncmst.org

Our first Thur-Hiker for 2005 will leave Clingman's Done on February 20, 2005. You can track Adam Collins at www.trailjournals.com

Folks, The Parkway out of Balsam Gap is closed, so we can't get to the overlook to finish up that section of the MST trail. Instead, lets go to the area where we have been working on the new shelter, but instead of moving logs, what say we do some trail improvement work. The AT North of the new shelter is suppose to be in need of some TLC, including widening the tread, lopping, and lots of root covering. Sounds like our kind of job. Asheville folks meet at Home Depot at exit 44 of I-40 at 8:00. I think I am the only Hendersonville person coming this week, so I will drive myself to exit 44. Alan please meet us at the Harmon Den exit if you are coming out this week. Bring digging tools for tread work. Please let me know if you plan to work this week, so we can get the transportation right. See you Friday. Skip

John Soldati's Wednesday Work Crew

Worked the MTS south from Hendersonville Road (Highway 25) to the Highway 26 bridge. Removed the large pine that was hanging over the trail, removed the snag and filled in the hole by the rootball, removed 2 or 3 smaller trees, cleaned silt bars and added trench on the hill side just north of the Highway 26 bridge. This trail section in good shape and does not require further work other than the post mentioned below.

John, I hung a blue ribbon by the spot where the extra steps are that you want to move to Bull Gap.

A post needs to be added where the trail meets the first road, just past the big blowdown (going south from Hwy 25) so that markings can be added indicating the trail goes right. Don

We will see if the weather will co-orperate...be ready for a "rain abort" about 7:00 AM Wednesday morning. Let's meet at Folk Art Center at 8:00 AM. We will do some good work at Bull Gap. Since the parking is limited, it will be better to park at F. Art Center and move down from there. I will ask Mr. Christensen, if he is plannig to come out, to meet me close to mile marker 391 at 7:45 AM to help me pick up the five wooden bars and rebar so we can move them down to Bull Gap. As usual, please reply. Hope to see everyone out. We understand that Mr. Roberts is back from the "rose tinted glass" land. Also a note to Bill Carr: we have your gear and will bring it Wednesday. JS

We had three out today and the weather held at Bull Gap. Barth cut some good locust bars and stakes and Don and I put in four of the old step (6X6's) we pick up at BRP Marker 391 earlier this morning.
We began the Bull Gap (new) trail by beginning at the bottom and removing the bad steps that were there and initiated the new, safer and wider tread. We placed crush rock and heavy rock cribbing on the outside after moving the tread deeper into the bank. This is just the beginning but they look good. After using the final 6X6, we will move to locust bars with hole for rebar (needed here at this spot due to heavy rock and shell on the hill. Piet: we would like to continue with 6X6's at four feet long (it would look much better)...nevertheless, we will need rebar for another 8 to 12 bars.
Don installed a large water bar just north of the Bull Gap acces trail/MST to pull the water away and off the trail. The crew will return there nest Wednesday and do more work at this site. Looks good guys. Official report follows. JS

I few days ago it looked like we might make Monday. The BRP is closed at Ox Creek but more importantly we have a weather forecast of temperatures in the 20s in the AM and not above freezing all day with winds of 11 MPH. That gives us a wind chill between 15 & 21. Sorry, we'll try again next week. Barth

Had three out today. Drove down to Harmon Den and was planning to go up onto M. Patch Rd. and double back on AT to begin where last Friday's Crew stopped work on the trail between the two bridges. Cold Creek Road was frozen (solid) in many places which told me the much higher elevations would be very "tricky." We returned to MST and did a long trail survey beginning just north of the F. Broad River bridge up to US HWY 25. The survey revealed several things that need attention prior to better weather for a large number of active humans and dogs along this well traveled section. See Official Report for trail details. Good day despite, light rain and frozen roads. JS

Our crew was small. Fortunately David Roberts is back on the job or I would have gotten lonesome.

We concentrated on the section of the MST starting about .5 miles south of Craven Gap to about 1 mile south of Rattlesnake Lodge. We did not reach Rattlesnake but ran into a hiker who covers that portion on a regular basis and he assured us that no trees were down going up there.

We started be cleaning up two leaners about 1 mile south of the Folk Arts Center. Obviously. the effect the leaner has on a hiker depends on the hikers height and the size of the backpack. I found them unacceptable. I believe there is still another leaner between there and BRP 386 but it is of little significance.

David and I removed another big leaner and a couple of smaller obstacles on the Craven Gap north part of the trip.

At this moment in time I feel it is safe to say that there is no tree hindering the hiker from Rattlesnake Lodge to French Broad.

Now concentrating on just south of Craven Gap to about a mile south of Rattlesnake. There is definitely work which can be done.

Many of the problems David improved but since we wanted to cover the remaining portion of the trail to Rattlesnake we could not devote much time to fixing the problems.

About 15 minutes south Craven Gap there is a stream bed problem followed by about 35 feet of soggy trail.

After that we were doing some work along the way and also running into steeper climbs making it difficult to pinpoint the specific problems by timing intervals. I do not have near as much experience on the trail as other maintainers but this section of the MST has just about everything in 1.7 miles. There are great rock work steps, great wooden steps, good use of cribbing on steep slopes, filled in holes and steps where an uprooted tree created a big hole, side hill problems where the trail is collapsing downhill, a section of the trail with a steep climb up or down in a stream bed, a section going over a slanted rock face because there is no room to run it any other way, the use of cribbing that has created a bog, etc. It is sort of like a microcosm of what is involved in trail maintenance. We should leave it the way it is and use it to introduce new maintainers to trail maintenance.

The issues are pretty well spread out along the trail. The biggest problem is where the trail actually forces the hiker to walk a very steep stream (spring). It is closer to the Ox Creek end. What appears to be a situation where cribbing is creating a soggy trail is south of the steam just mentioned. Not far from that is where some tread work is required. In summary a crew can find plenty of challenging work in this stretch of the trail.

The question is priority for the work to be done. I would say the trail in the stream bed should be pretty high priority. Therefore, the other issues which are not high priority should also be tackled at the same time.