CMC Enewsletter -April 11s, 2008

For the months of June through August I will be producing the biweekly eNews while the Bernsteins are on vacation. I am not as closely involved in the day-to-day activities of the club as is Danny. This means that I will need help in gathering items for the eNews. Please don't assume that if something important is happening that I know about it. Send me items for inclusion! Putting "eNews" in your email subject header will guarantee that your input will get prompt attention.

We have had reports over the last few months that some of our members who are not certified have used chain saws to clear trees from our trails. Please do not use chain saws unless you are certified to do so. We have agreements with both the Forest Service and the National Park Service to maintain trails, and part of both agreements is that we will follow their safety guidelines when doing so. The guidelines say that any one operating a chain saw must be certified to operate the saw, as well as having first aid and CPR training.

If you find trees on our trails that need to be removed please report it on the web page under Maintenance - trail issues. A qualified sawyer will remove the tree as soon as possible.

The new Search and Rescue is compiling and maintaining a contact list of members who might be available to help in a possible search. Anyone interested can contact Frank Goldsmith at frankgold@earthlink.net, 828-230-6077, or Stuart English at stuengo@citcom.net, 828-883-2447. This information will be available only to SAR committee members. It is understood that everyone on the list might not be able to respond. This is makes it important to have a well represented list.

Lenny Bernstein is featured prominently in the July-August issue of AT Journeys. Over two pages of text, a full-page photo and a half-page photo!

In June, the Tennessee legislature enacted a new AT specialty license plate for our state. The Tennessee Eastman Hiking Club, the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club, and others are working to sign up the needed 1000 plate purchases within 12 months of the bill's passage in order to make this an official Tennessee license plate.

ATC will gain $15.56 from the sale of each plate, and we're optimistic that with considerable work that we can meet our 1000 plate threshold and gain more funds for ATC, and for our clubs. As with the NC plate, funds can be made available for projects along the state line, so this can be a source of funds for CMC as well as Tennessee-based clubs.

ATC has prepared an application form for the plate. Leanna Joyner at the ATC office in Asheville (828-254-3708) has some hard copies of the application available in the Asheville office.

Sawyers and Roan Highland Stewards! Come and join us for a couple of days in the most majestic spot in the southeast. The Roan Highlands are suffering from woody growth encroachment and without the help of volunteers mowing, cutting and lopping some of it back – we may lose the scenic significance of the globally rare Southern Appalachian Bald Grassy Bald ecosystem. Come and learn about the management and partners that steward the Roan Massif, and meet the area’s newest visitors – the angora goats, part of the volunteer-based Baa-tany Project.

Who: ATC and Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy invite you to two days of volunteer work in the Roan Highlands.

What: Two days of lopping, sawing, and snipping woody encroachment creeping into the grassy bald. Dinner, camping, instruction will be provided.

Where: We will be focusing on the northwest side of Round Bald. Camping is provided at the Roan Mountain State Park.

Volunteer responsibilities: Please bring your own camping gear, tools if you have them (saws, loppers, PPE, etc…), breakfast for the 29th and lunch for both days. You do not have to be a sawyer to participate.

(There is a wealth of information on our website. This is one of an irregular series of brief descriptions of what any hiker can find there..--Editor)

The CMC maintains an easily-searchable list of over 600 hikes. The list is available to all. Most of the hikes are in western North Carolina, but there are also some in the Great Smokies, upstate South Carolina and upstate Georgia.

To find the list go to the CMC website. In the left margin under "Hiking", click on "Hike Finder" or "BRP". The BRP list is a shorter version of the list which covers only hikes along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

There are several ways to search for a hike: general location, length, difficulty, BRP milepost, hike name and number (used mostly by CMC hike schedulers). This search yields a list of the hikes meeting your search criteria.

For each hike, the information is presented on two levels. There is a summary which gives the trailhead location, hike type, difficulty, and length. Clicking on the name of the hike takes you to a detail page for that hike.

The detailed information on each hike varies. Most contain ascent/descent elevation information, a detailed description and driving directions to the trailhead. For many hikes there are both downloadable maps showing the hike (pdf format) and GPS tracks (in gpx or txf format). Adding GPS tracks for the hikes and converting all tracks to the common gpx format is an on-going Club project.

The Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway is producing a new brochure, and they want to include a high-quality image of volunteer trail work.If you have pictures that you'd like to submit for their consideration you can send a low-resolution jpg to Kitty Coleman at the Friends office. They will contact you if they want higher quality images

There is a long standing debate whether the Mountains to Sea Trail is called the "MTS" or "M-T-S or the "MST". Early in the development of the trail most of the construction and existing trail was located, and still is, in Western NC.

For reasons that began before my time we started calling it the MTS or M-T-S trail and it is today in our area most commonly referred to as the MTS trail. Even the sign on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) leading to the BRP Administrative Building has MTS on its sign.

The Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail organization and the North Carolina State Park System both will assure you that the official abbreviated name of the trail is "MST". --Don Walton

No sections are available now, but one section needs an assistant. For information contact Don Walton.

Licklock Gap to Doubletop 0.9 miles
Walnut Cove Overlook to Hardtimes Road 1.2 miles
FS Road 816 to Dark Prong Gap 1.6 miles.
Orchard Overlook to Balsam Gap, 2.5 miles

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, August 12th to Dave Wetmore dwetmore@citcom.net 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 Marcia Bromberg at mwbromberg@yahoo.com. If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back to the CMC home page > News >Subscribe and change it there yourself.

Important News	Notice to all maintainers
Heard on the Trail	What's in a Name?
Heard on the Ground	MST Sections Available!
The small print	Deadlines, change of addresses and other details

Carolina Mountain Club

July 31st, 2008