Carolina Mountain Club

Hike - Save trails - Make friends

June 20, 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 June 18 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.

How to join the Carolina Mountain Club
1. Go to www.carolinamtnclub.org
2. Click on “How to Join” (upper-left on web page)
3. Print out the “CMC Application Form”
4. Fill it Out, write a check for your dues and ...5. Mail to CMC, PO Box 68, Asheville NC 28802

       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

Evening Hike on Friday June 29

Check the hiking schedule for a new evening hike with a full moon - easy and suitable for everyone.

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Other Important News

CMC receives grant.

CMC has obtained a $1,312 grant from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for hand tools and weedeaters for the trail crews. The money is from the North Carolina AT license plate program, so all of you who have AT license plates can be happy that your money is being spent close to home. Thanks to Barth Brooker, our Councilor for Trail Maintenance, for putting together the grant request. Lenny Bernstein

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CMC Annual Dinner on Nov. 3

Be sure to reserve the evening of November 3 to attend our Annual Dinner. Notice that a lot of the details are different. We’re meeting on a Saturday evening at the First Baptist Church in Asheville, social hour at 5:00 with punch and appetizers, full buffet dinner at 6:00, vegetarian entree included. Our annual business meeting will be at 7:00, followed by our program which this year is the finale of our photo contest culminating in the awarding of prizes to all the winners and placers, presented by our own Gerry McNabb and featuring the club’s new projector. Dress is “Comfortable to Dressy”, you decide.

The price for the event will be in the $15-17 per person range. We’ll help set up carpools as needed. No alcohol is permitted at this venue.

Please consider participating in our photo contest, as this could be a very exciting event. There will be some great prizes awarded with several placers in each of five categories. With lots of possible winners, you don’t want to lose out by not even trying! Details are at Photo Contest .

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Hike scheduler needed

CMC has an immediate opening for someone to schedule the Sunday afternoon hikes, obtain leaders, and write the descriptions for the four quarterly issues of Let’s Go. Computer skills and ability to work with Word are required. The scheduler also is responsible for providing leaders with sign-up sheets and filing the completed ones. The scheduling task is vital to the Club and gives the scheduler a chance to expand his/her friendships and learn about the many hikes in our area.

We ask anyone interested in this project to contact either Paula Robbins (paularww@bellsouth.net, 281-3253) or Bruce Bente (bbente@bellsouth.net, 692-0116).

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36th ATC Biennial Conference July 13-20, 2007, in Mahwah, NJ

Eight Days of Fun – Come for a day, weekend, or every day. Everyone is welcome, no membership required

Hikes – on the Appalachian Trail and some of 1,669 miles of marked trails in NY and NJ maintained by the NY-NJ Trail Conference
Ecology Youth Program – for youth from 5 to 12 years old – run by Weis Ecology Center
Excursions – to a wide selection of Historic, Environmental, and Cultural Sites
Workshops – on Trail Building, Local History, Photography, Family Hiking, Hiker Health, Plants, Equipment, & much more

Based at Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ, Just south of NY-NJ state line, near I-287. Minutes from the AT
Within an hour of NYC by car or public transportation

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Help needed for MST GPSer

I am Arthur Kelley, an MST volunteer from Raleigh. In consultation with Jeff Brewer I'm doing a project to walk the MST hiking trails using a GPS and to map the results. You can see some sections closer to Raleigh here at http://community.webshots.com/user/NCMSTMAPS

I need help arranging shuttles along the MST in the Mountain Region. I'm hoping you can help. This e-mail is being sent to everyone in the Mountain Region as listed on the NCMST.ORG website.

So far I've done Bur-Mill to near Bryan Parks (Greensboro), Eno River State Park, West Point on the Eno and Eno River Greenway (Durham), The Falls Lake Trail (Raleigh), and the Neusiok Trail (Croatan NF). Right now, these maps are a "work in progress". When I'm done they will be available for MST use and planning.

This summer I have 6 weeks off from work so I'm going to map the mountain trails. In consultation with Jeff, I've divided the long mountain hikes into four major sections as shown below:

Week	Start (shuttle to	End (leave car)	Distance
A	Woodfin Cascades Overlook BRP MP 446	Pisgah Inn BRP MP 408.6	60.1
B	Pisgah Inn BRP MP 408.6 (Could be reversed)	Mt. Mitchell SP BRP MP 355.4	60.3
C	Ripshin Ridge NC-181	Mt. Mitchell SP BRP MP 355.4	64.6
D	Ripshin Ridge NC-181	Blowing Rock BRP MP 291.9 6	48.8

I'm not planning to hike them in any particular order and I have complete schedule flexibility. Normally, I'm hoping to do the shuttle on Sunday and the hike for the rest of the week. I'd do it all at once, but I need to return to Raleigh between hikes to download the GPS data into my computer!
If you know of any commercial shuttles (outfitters, etc.) or reliable private individuals along the trail that can help me, would you please pass that information on to me? I'm willing to pay the "going rate" which is far above "just gas money".
I'm going to fill in the other shorter sections (Clingman's Dome, Stone Mountain SP, etc.) on the "off" weeks. All help will be greatly appreciated. Hope I'll see you out on the trail. Sincerely, Arthur Kelley
awkathome@earthlink.net 919 349-2580

Dear CMC and others:

Arthur Kelley is working on a MST mapping project as a volunteer from Raleigh, NC. His goal is to GPS and then map all of the hiking sections of the MST. All of these maps will be offered to the public for free off of the MST website and shared with others. The goal is to provide the public with maps of the MST to generate more MST interest and allowing a hiker not to get lost. During the last half of June and the first half of July this will be taking place in the Mountains of NC. Arthur is in need of trail shuttles from the GSMNP to Black Mountain Campground area - the email traffic below explains his method. If you can help him out please let him know - it would be a great service to the MST. Thanks. Jeff Brewer

Image from the MST website of the MST longest foot bridge - 200 feet across the North Fork of the Catawba River on the way to the top of Bald Knob.

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Conservation

The full Appropriations Committee in the House reported the FY 2008 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill out of committee on a voice vote. Both Interior Chairman Dicks and Ranking Member Tiahrt spoke in support of the parks funding. The next step is a vote by the entire House. On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate Interior Appropriations subcommittee is likely to mark up their bill later this month.

Overall, the FY 2008 Interior bill increases funding from the current FY07 level by 4.5%. As the committee notes, funding over the last six years (including the Administrations FY08 request) has fallen 16% for the Department of Interior. The theme of the bill is "Changing Directions" emphasizing reinvesting in our pubic lands and environment following a period of significant disinvent and inadequate funding for these programs in recent years. Some NPS numbers:

Overall, funding for the Park Service is $2.5 billion, and increase of $222 million over FY 2007 enacted level and $148 million above the Administration's request. Operations of the Park Service is at $2 billion, an increase of $199 million above FY 2007. For NPS land acquisition and state assistance there is $99.4 million ($49.4 federal NPS, $50 state grants) this is an increase of $76 million above the Administration's request (+$50 state grants, +$27 NPS federal). As the Committee report states, this increase in operations of $199 million (11%) is the largest increase for park operations in history. Excerpted from information by Greg Kidd, NPCA

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Heard on the Ground

Compliments to the trail crew.

Yesterday while out with the Friday crew on the A.T., I met a hiker from Utah and want to pass on his comments about the CMC portion of the AT we maintain. He is a member of an Utah hiking club which consists of about 1,000 members. He said it is amazing how good our portion of the A.T. is. He reiterated several times how well we kept the trail and said how much better it is than the trails their Utah club maintains.

So congratulations to all the maintenance crew members and the section maintainers. It is nice to have our hard
work praised in such glowing terms by someone that is familiar with such things. Barth Brooker. barthb@bellsouth.net

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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. Haywood Gap to green Mountain Trail Junction (3 miles)
3. Green Mountain Trail Junction to NC 215 (4 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

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