Carolina Mountain Club

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April 11, 2008

Hiking News | CMC Calendar

What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks

Spring Barbeque - Saturday April 19

The third annual Spring Barbeque will be held at the beautiful NC Arboretum on Saturday April 19 from 2:00 - 8:30. CMC members, their families and friends are welcome. You do not have to be a member to attend.

There will be two hikes in the Arboretum, both ending at the new Baker Visitor Center. Paula Robbins will lead the first at 2:30, taking time to identify spring wild flowers. At 3:00, Sherman Stambaugh will lead a leisurely hike starting on the Carolina Mountain Trail. Both are easy loop hikes of about 5 miles. We will return with plenty of time to enjoy the Arboretum, the Bonsai exhibit, and visit with friends.

At 6:00, Bubba Q will again serve barbeque pork and chicken, sides and dessert. The program will be an "Old Timers" event. A special invitation is issued to current members or past members of 25 years or longer. Bring your old timey gear, old documents, old pictures and old stories to share with the group.

The price is still $13 per person (no gate entry charged).
Please send checks, made out to CMC, by April 12 to Les Love 25 Scenic View Dr. Weaverville 28787. Questions? Call Les at 658-1489 or lesrlove@charter.net.

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CMC Hiking Committee Meeting - April 21

The CMC Hiking Committee will have their next quarterly meeting on Monday April 21 from 7 to 9 PM. All CMC members are welcome to attend. Items discussed are scheduling of hikes; hike leader recruiting, hike leader training, and any issues that can affect the quantity and quality of hikes. We plan on mailing a survey to all members soon and a final review of the survey will take place at this meeting. Any member who would like to attend should call or email Charlie Ferguson for directions: 828-333-5165 ccf108@gmail.com.

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Hugh Irwin to Speak on North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures - April 17

You are invited to a special presentation on North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures, lands that conservation groups, including The Wilderness Society and the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, consider critical conservation and recreation lands deserving special protection. These are many of the places where we hike regularly.

Hugh’s talk will be the special topic at CMC’s Conservation meeting on April 17 at 3:00 pm at the Greenlife Community Room. The Greenlife Community Room is a separate building, north of the grocery store on Merrimon Avenue near I-240. Come a few minutes early, since parking is sometimes busy.

Conservation groups, including The Wilderness Society and the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, are preparing an updated book on North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures. The book will be a resource for advocating for protection of special places in Pisgah and Nantahala Forests when the management plans for these forests are revised in the near future. Learn about North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures, their importance, how they were identified, and how we can help.

For more information about this special meeting, contact Ruth Hartzler at ruthmtn@charter.net or 828-251-0886. For a preliminary version of North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures, visit www.ncmountaintreasures.org.

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Hiking North Carolina's Lookout Towers - April 15

Please join CMC member Peter Barr for the release of Hiking North Carolina’s Lookout Towers at Diamond Brand Outdoors, 2623 Hendersonville Rd., Arden, NC; 828-209-1501) at 7:00pm on Tuesday, April 15. A slideshow presentation on Western NC’s fire lookout towers will be followed by a book signing. Refreshments will be served.

Peter Barr is head of the North Carolina chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association.

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Other Important News

GPS course - May 3

If you have or are planning to buy a GPS unit, here’s your chance to learn how it works, how to use it more efficiently, how to get better tracks, and how to work with those tracks on your computer. Dave Wetmore, the instructor, will cover how GPS units and the satellite system work together; sources of error and their importance, how to minimize errors; and a brief survey of computer software. For prospective users, there will be a discussion of brands and their features. Class will be on Saturday, May 3rd from 9 AM to 1 PM. Contact Cindy McJunkin at mcjfive@aol.com or 828-712-9646 for more information and to register.

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On the Trail with the ATC and US Forest Service

On Monday, April 7, Marianne Newman and Ruth Hartzler of CMC’s Conservation Committee, accompanied by Bruce Bente and Jack Dalton, spent a fascinating day on the trail with Morgan Sommerville, ATC Southeast Region Director, and Forest Service landscape architect Eric Crews. Morgan's goal was to envision the impact proposed timber harvests in the Harmon Den area would have on views from the A.T. Eric's was to identify these areas "on the ground," listen to our thoughts, and come up with alternatives to consider where they seemed advisable.

We CMC'ers concentrated on learning how to look at the forest in this context, absorbing the fine points of forest and viewshed management, and checking on the impact of two proposed timber harvests along the Rube Rock trail. The overall fate of the Rube Rock and Groundhog Creek trails isn't Eric's to decide, but we made sure he knew how much CMC, the Haywood Hikers, and perhaps some other groups enjoy using them and that CMC would be glad to maintain them so the Forest Service doesn't have to. A gorgeous day, a carpet of spring beauties, fine hiking, informative conversation, and lots of new and useful knowledge - how much better could things be? Based on information from this walk and other input, the Conservation Committee will soon draft final comments on the Forest Service’s Harmon Den plan for CMC Council approval. Marianne Newman

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Appalachian Trail Conservancy Meeting Report

Three years ago, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) formed four Regional Partnership Committees (RPCs) to provide links between the trail maintaining clubs and ATC’s national organization. CMC belongs to the Deep South RPC, along with Georgia ATC, Nantahala Hiking Club, Smoky Mountain Hiking Club and Tennessee Eastman Hiking and Canoe Club. Once a year the Deep South RPC and Virginia RPC meet in a joint Southern Partnership meeting. Lenny Bernstein, Howard McDonald and Don Walton attended this year’s meeting which was held in Mountain Lakes, VA on March 28-30. Interesting pieces of information from the meeting included:

· The off-again, on-again plans to make a movie from A Walk in the Woods, are apparently on again, with filming scheduled to begin this Fall. I’ll believe it is actually happening only after I see the movie in a movie theater.

· The Conservation Fund and US Forest Service expect to close on a portion of the 10,000 acre Rocky Fork Tract in June, and on the remainder in December. Part of CMC’s portion of the A.T. runs along the edge of the tract. Morgan Sommerville says that an addition $4 million is needed to pay for the land, but he is confident that the money can be raised.

· ATC is building a volunteer information data base. The public part of this data base will have information about volunteer opportunities at ATC and in individual Clubs, such as CMC. The confidential part of the system will have information about volunteers for the clubs to use. For Lenny’s full report click here.

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Heard on the Ground

ATC trail maintenance workshop in May 3 -4

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Adopt a Section of the Appalachian Trail

No sections are available now. If you want to be on a waiting list, email Don Walton.

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Adopt a Section of the MST

Richland Balsam Access(3 Trees) to Cowee Overlook Access, 1.8 miles

NC128 to Buncombe Horse Range Trail Head (BHRT) at Camp Alice, 3.0 miles

If you're interested, email Don Walton.

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Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton

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Heard on the Trail

Burning Calories while Hiking

If you fancy doing some calculations for yourselves I find this website very good.
http://www.calorieking.com/tools/exercise_calories.php. Naturally hiking isn't a listed activity (!) but walking uphill on a treadmill, and then adding a few extra for being outdoors and carrying a pack, should get you somewhere near an accurate answer. Jude Wood.

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The Small Print

So send me your news and maintenance reports by Wednesday evening at 9 P.M. before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Tuesday evening April 22, 2008 to Danny Bernstein danny@hikertohiker.com. Include your email address at the end of your story. Thank you. I can only accept the Wednesday hike report by Wednesday evening.

       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.

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