December 20, 2006

Hunting Season:

Carolina Mountain Club    Hike - Save trails - Make friends

Merry Christmas and a Happy Hiking Year!

        Please send me your hiking news, hike and maintenance reports by Monday evening before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Monday evening January 29, 2007 to Danny Bernstein danny@hikertohiker.org. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you.

       For CMC members only - Send all address and email changes to Jean Gard at jeangard@charter.net.

What's Happening the Next Few Weeks

Not doing much on Christmas Day? Come and hike with CMC friends!

MONDAY No. A0604-487  Dec. 25 Bent Creek Loop #9 9:00 AM Hike 9, Drive 20, 1600 ft. ascent, Rated A-A Lenny & Danny Bernstein, 828-236-0192, danny@hikertohiker.org 
P400 Note later start time. Join us for a Christmas hike around Bent Creek, starting at the Hardtimes trailhead. A great close-in, cool weather hike suitable for everyone. Dinner at a casual Chinese restaurant for those interested. Topos: Dunsmore Mtn. , Skyland; also Nat’l. Geo. PRD map
For an easier hike, Jean Gard and Paula Robbins will lead a shorter version of this hike at Bent Creek for those who only wish to hike about five miles at a slower pace. They will join the other group for dinner. Contact Paula at paularww@bellsouth.net or 828-281-3253 if you would like to join them.

For either hike listed above, if you are not a CMC member, you must call the leader.

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Survey on our Annual Meeting

All members are invited to contribute their ideas and feedback in a survey concerning our annual meeting venue and format.  Even if you were not at our last meeting—especially if you were not there—we want to hear from you.  Go to our website at http://www.carolinamtnclub.org/ and click on the red box.

Public meetings on state funding for land and water Conservation

January 2007 will be a crucial month for efforts to increase state funding for land and water conservation and preservation of historic places in North Carolina. We need your help to make sure such efforts are successful.

The General Assembly’s Land and Water Conservation Study Commission will hold public meetings at 7pm on January 4 in Asheville (Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Laurel Building, Ferguson Auditorium - 340 Victoria Rd., Asheville), January 8 in Greenville, and January 10 in Greensboro. Public comment at those meetings will have a major influence on the recommendations the Commission makes to the 2007 General Assembly to provide $1 billion in additional land and water conservation funding over the next five years.

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Problems with Internet Explorer 7 - and the CMC website

If you have downloaded IE 7 and cannot get some of the links on the CMC website, you are not alone. Here is what Don Walton, our webmaster says: I have talked to Microsoft and Interland(our web provider). Microsoft recognizes that it is a bug in IE7. They have it on their agenda to fix and they will not let us know when they do. It will just come in an update. In the meantime you can either uninstall IE7 and your PC will go back to IE6 or you can use a combination of Firefox browser and IE7 until it is fixed. Firefox is a free download.

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Other Important News

From the Great Smoky Mountains Association:
We have just set up a hiking discussion board on the Great Smoky Mountains Association website and could use some help getting things rolling. We would really appreciate it if you would let your members know about this message board and let them know we need some experts to go on the board and suggest some great hikes in each of the 10 areas of the park.
Many people can benefit from your members' experience. Sign with your club names and give your website address if you like.
The page is at http://www.smokiesinformation.org/nf/updates/05i_forum_hikers.php

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Help the AT Supervisor

I have been the AT Supervisor for almost ten years and would like to turn it over to younger people at some time in the not too distant future. If you are interested in joining me in order to ease the load and to become familiar with all that goes with the Supervisor position, please contact me, Howard McDonald at  <hamcdonald@cytechcis.net> or 828-693-8258. Thank you!

From your editor - This is a great opportunity for someone who loves the A.T. to learn from our A.T. expert, Howard McDonald. Whether you're a hiker hoping to finish the A.T., a section maintainer or on the trail crew, you will become the A.T. expert in our club.

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Southern Appalachian Initiative Blog - Check it out

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Oh, the places you'll go: From the Mountain Xpress (Dec. 13-20, 2006)

Kent Priestley, the Outdoor Editor of the Mountain Xpress, suggests giving a CMC membership as a stocking stuffer.

Few regional outdoor groups boast as robust a schedule as the Carolina Mountain Club. Pick a weekend, and members are somewhere burning – or at least treading – up the trails. This month, for instance, a Dec. 17 all-day hike led by Joanne Tulip will take in Green Knob by way of the whimsically named Snooks Nose. On Christmas Day, Xpress contributor Danny Bernstein will, with her husband Lenny, lead a ramble around Bent Creek. There are also partial-day hikes and Wednesday hikes for you layabouts (or retirees, as the case may be). Annual membership is $20, which gives a year's worth of trailwalking all the contours of a pretty seductive stocking-stuffer.

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Conservation

Hummingbirds in the Winter - From the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway eNewsletter 

Increasingly hummingbirds are turning up at feeders in Virginia and North Carolina during the winter months. But these aren't ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only species that we have along the Parkway in the summer and the only one that breeds in the east. These winter birds are western and northern hummingbirds that have migrated to the east coast. Nine different species have been observed in North Carolina during the winter over the last few years. Keeping a feeder up in the winter is a little trickier than during the summer. For more information about hummingbirds and maintaining a feeder in the winter see the following link: http://www.rubythroat.org/

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Lake Powhatan to be drained, dredged - From the Asheville Citizen-Times, Dec. 18, 2006

The rain caused by hurricanes of 2004 dumped significant amounts of sediment into the lake. This project will help to restore the lake’s water quality to benefit both fisheries habitat and recreational swimming. The lake has been closed to swimming several times in recent years, and it is hoped this dredging project will keep closures from being needed in future years.

The lake is now about two-thirds drained and removal of the silt will begin as soon as the lakebed is sufficiently dried out. The dredging should be complete by the end of February and then Lake Powhatan should refill rapidly with normal spring rains. The lake will likely be restocked with fish by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission later in the spring.

During this project, several nearby trails will have to be closed. The locations of specific trail closures will be posted on trailhead bulletin boards in the Bent Creek area.

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Heard on the Trail

Next eNews on January 31!

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