Carolina Mountain Club

Hike - Save trails - Make friends

April 25, 2007

Hiking News | CMC Calendar

        Please send me your hiking news, hike and maintenance reports by Monday evening at 9 P.M. before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Monday evening May 7, 2007 to Danny Bernstein danny@hikertohiker.com. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you.

       The CMC Calendar is meant to answer the perennial question "When is this happening again?" It is also meant to prevent conflicts between competing CMC events. Please check it often.

       For CMC members only - Send all address and email changes to Jean Gard at jeangard@charter.net. If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back into "subscribe" and change it there yourself.

What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks

Great Southeastern Hiking Festival

The Great Southeastern Hiking Festival will be held at the Montreat Conference Center - our own backyard – on Thursday through Sunday, May 3 -6. The Festival, which attracts hikers from all over the Southeast, is sponsored by the American Hiking Society. Each day, there will be hikes, workshops and great entertainment. On Friday evening, Buncombe Turnpike, a local blue grass band, will play and on Saturday evening, singer-songwriter, Christine Kane, will be the main event. Carolina Mountain Club is co-hosting this event. Come for a day or for the whole festival. For more information, see www.greatsehikingfestival.org

Special on Thursday. CMC hikers are encouraged to come and hike as part of the festival. No registration required. Look at the list of hikes, choose one and meet at Montreat on Lookout Road Parking Area, ready to hike. For more information on Thursday's hikes, contact Bruce Bente at bbente@bellsouth.net

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Other Important News

The second annual Spring Picnic was a great success. Over 90 CMC members and guests hiked, went on a flower walk and enjoyed the Arboretum. This was a chance to socialize with hikers we don't usually see. I went on a flower walk led by Paula Robbins, an official volunteer guide for the NC Arboretum. Sherman Stambaugh led a more challenging hike.

After a great barbecue dinner, Gerry and Paula McNabb gave a great and professional slide show on hiking in Europe. Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Spain .... I'm sure there were other countries I forgot. Some of the slides brought back wonderful memories. Other slides were an inspiration to learn more about the country. I think that the slide show should be an annual event. See a few picnic pictures.

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Keep on extending the MST!

Did you save the date, May 12?? Join Us !!! This is your best chance this year to extend the MST south. This is your best opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you will have this year hiking. We hope to have a large group to help us complete another piece of the MST going south of the Cascade/Woodfin overlook, south of Balsam Gap.
When: May 12, 2007
Meeting Place: Moose Café at 9:00 AM for car pooling or Parkway Maintenance Office, Balsam Gap intersection with Rt. 74/23 south of Waynesville.@ 9:30 or at mile marker 447 of the Parkway.

Tools will be available but if you have digging tools of your own, please bring them. Please call all your friends and acquaintances and invite them. The larger the group, the more fun!! If you are joining the group for breakfast, meet earlier and be ready to leave at 9:00 AM. Piet Bodenhorst pietboden@bellsouth.net

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New CMC Discussion Groups

Our CMC webmaster has set up several discussion groups (aka forums or bulletin boards or message boards) on the CMC website.  Here is the top page for the discussions. These discussions are available to be read by anyone.  CMC members can post new messages or reply to others messages at anytime.  One of the primary uses for these groups is to help organize activities that are not being already organized by CMC members, as a part of its normal activities.  An example of this is organizing backpack hikes on shorter notice than the CMC newsletters are able to communicate. Another is for a hike leader to announce a scout for a scheduled hike or proposed hike, so that others may see if they might want to join the scout.  It is always preferable to participate in the normally scheduled hikes, but sometimes the scouts may happen at a more opportune time.  Here is the Scouting discussion.  Hike leaders - post your scouts there if you want company.

Another discussion category is to help those that are trying to accomplish one of the "challenges" get together and schedule hikes or backpacks that are not normally part of the CMC schedule. For example see: discussion on the South Beyond 6000 challenge.  If you are interested in this challenge this is the time to dive in and let people know. 

There is another category to discuss and trade hiking gear.  If you liked a hike - post a message.  If you didn't like it - post a message.  If you have suggestions for hikes - post a message.  If there is a problem with a hike or trail - post a message.  Sometimes discussions on the trail are easily forgotten - posting a message helps other to put attention on it.  If you have an idea for a new category of discussion then post a message someplace, like the general category.

The use of these kinds of message boards my be very new to some, but it is worth a try to check them out.  Right now there are not many messages posted because the boards are so new.  Links to other sites can be posted if they are of general interest.  To read messages you do not have to register - just click on one of the links above.  To post messages you will need to register.  Once you get email notification of your user id and password you will be able to logon as a member of the forums.   It may take some time before your new registration is recognized by the system.  If you have questions about using the forums or otherwise want to discuss them, either post messages there or call me, Charlie Ferguson - 333-5165 - ccf108@gmail.com.  Future e-News issues may contain more "how to use it" instructions if there is a need.

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Conservation

Outstanding Resource Waters

The Environmental Management Commission has now designated the streams flowing out of the Smokies onto the North Shore of Fontana Lake as Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW). The designation includes all streams from Forney Creek to Eagle Creek, including Forney Creek (on the east) and Eagle Creek (on the west) and the entire watersheds of both those creeks, and all the creeks in between.

In addition to the designation, the EMC added six special conditions that apply to any development activity [read road construction] disturbing more than 5,000 square feet of land area. The designation, together with these additional conditions make any new road construction in the Smokies on the North Shore of Fontana Lake virtually impossible. All this took effect on 1 January 2007. It is a major step forward for us.

We have SELC to thank for convicing the EMC to add the special conditions.

We have Representative Phil Haire and Senator John Snow for coming up with the legislation mandating the designation of these streams, and shepherding the bills through the General Assembly. Those who want to see the full wording can obtain it from this link [5 pages]: http://www.ncwaterquality.org/admin/rules/documents/15ancac02b.0225.pdf
Ted Snyder.

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Heard on the Ground

Storm Damage on the A.T.

Hello Deep Southerners- The recent storm beat up the AT pretty bad in the Deep South region. Right now I am trying to get an idea of the damage done in everyone’s section and determine if all the clubs have the right personnel and equipment to address these problems. Please keep me informed if you find out about major sections of tread way damage, concentrated areas of blow downs and AYCE Carolina Barbecue buffets.

Reports from Ridge Runners in the Smokies are already coming back and they paint a pretty bad picture. Comparisons are being made to hurricane Opal for those of you whom that means something to…I was too busy learning to parallel park at the time to notice trail damage from that one but it sounds bad. The SMHC sawyer and trail maintenance teams are headed out for a long weekend to tackle a slew of major problems. It looks like the work will take more time than they have, so I am asking other A.T. clubs, if they have not been similarly impacted by the aforementioned tempest, to let their sawyers and maintainers know that if they want to help out in the Smokies, I would be very thankful and I’m sure Morgan would personally purchase each of them a nice pair of ski’s(!). So, let me know the trail problems from the recent storm in your area and if your club members can come out to the Smokies. Their help would be greatly appreciated! -Andrew Downs,
(828) 254-3708 x14

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Adopt a piece of the A.T.

It is not often that a piece of the A.T. comes up for adoption. Maintaining a piece of the A.T. is an honor which any hiker in the world can appreciate. So don't delay if you want this one.

The Hurricane Gap to Spring Mountain Shelter section of the AT needs a new Section Maintainer. It is 1.7 miles long with about 570 feet elevation difference. All down hill going back to your car! Contact Howard McDonald if you are interested at hamcdonald@cytechcis.net or 828-693-8258.

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Adopt an MST Section

The following sections of the Mountains to Sea Trail are available for adoption:
1. FS Road 816 to Dark Prong Gap(1.6 miles),
2. Graveyard Fields Jct. 358B to BRP 417 ( Bridges Camp Gap) (2 miles)

These are all beautiful sections that provide great personal satisfaction in caring for them. Contact Don Walton at donwalton@bellsouth.net or 654-9904.

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Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton

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Heard on the Trail

Bushwhacking and the SB6K

From Vance Waggener in Wadmalaw Island, SC.
I have a question I hope you can answer for me. I looked at the Carolina Mtn Club’s SB6K list, and decided that would be a great goal, once we got our “legs”. Both the club site and your book state that some of the peaks do not have trails to them. One of the things pressed into my brain by other guides and my own experience is that we need to preserve the environment by staying on the trails, especially the steep parts with the switchbacks, and NEVER go off blazing our own trail. I have seen many trails heavily damaged by shortcuts and trailblazing, and the bad erosion resulting. You have much more experience and knowledge regarding this and I value your opinion. But why do you recommend hiking where there is no trail?

From Danny:
You ask a good question. Why encourage bushwhacking? The hikes in my book, by the way,
are all on officially maintained trails. With all the trails in the Carolina Mountains, there is no need to
bushwhack. However, there is a conflicting goal - to spread hikers out. A challenge such as the SB6K
encourages people to spread out. Otherwise they would keep coming back to Shining Rock, Cold Mountain
and other top of the pops. Some of the "bushwhacks" are not really crashing through the woods but on old roads, herd paths which are just not officially maintained. But others are and I can't excuse that away.

From Dave Wetmore:
First of all, off-trail hiking has very different skill set than trail hiking. Physically, it is much more demanding, both of energy and time. Obviously, well-developed and trusted skills in map and compass work are necessary. Many off-trail hikers don’t use GPS units and most of those that do (myself included) only use them to see where they’ve been once they get home. In addition, travel techniques through different kinds of vegetation and the relationship between terrain and vegetation are not always obvious but must be learned.

The phase “bushwhacking” gives the impression of charging through the woods with machetes flailing. Actually, most of us don’t leave any trace of where we’ve been. Some trail hikers are slobs who litter and some off-trail hikers are slobs who put up flagging and break or saw branches to leave markers. Most off-trail people are not like this. That’s why I use “off-trail” to describe what we do.

As to why we do it, I can only speak for myself. I’ve been doing off-trail work for 40 years, usually alone. Some off-trail trips have been as long as three days. As to what it is that I find satisfying and rewarding about the process is still a mystery to me. I think it’s simply the idea of “exploration”, of paying with risk and effort to see things that few or none have seen and walking where no human has walked before. In other words, the same kind of exploration that mankind has been doing since there was mankind.

I find it satisfying to come across traces of people who have been there before me. Home sites, logging camps, abandoned roads and trails; all these shadows on the land give me a much more nuanced view of both the past and the processes of time.

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