Carolina Mountain Club
Hike - Save trails - Make friends
October 24, 2008
Bear Hunting Season Oct 13 - Nov. 22
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| Upcoming Hikes | Hike Reports | CMC Calendar |
| Happenings in the next two weeks | CMC Annual Meeting and Dinner Nov. 1 |
| Other News | Help wanted and needed |
| Conservation | Where is the Mt. Mitchell tower? |
| Heard on the Ground | Adopt a piece of the MST |
| Heard on the Trail | Dolly Parton a Smokies ambassador |
| The small print | Deadlines, change of addresses and other details |
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From Your Editor Our Annual Meeting is on Saturday Nov. 1. Please come out and meet your fellow CMC members and your officers. Danny ---------------------- Back to Top What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks Bear Hunting Season We're in bear hunting season until November 22. Remember to wear orange. There's no hunting in the National or State Parks and no hunting on Sunday. ---------------------- Back to Top CMC Annual Dinner & Meeting - November 1, 2008 We are looking forward to a great turnout for the annual dinner. The last day of daylight savings was selected to give you a bit of extra daylight for youe trip to The Chariot in Hendersonville. Westgate will be used as a meeting place for those who may not wish to drive to Hendersonville. Email Barth or call him at 299-0298 Our guest speaker will be Adrienne Wallace, superintendent of the Chimney Rock State Park. She will be able to provide us with a glimpse into the future of the Park and the Hickory Nut Gorge area. There will be a social hour with refreshments from 5 to 6 during which we will have a slide show running to acquaint you with the two new club challenges, the waterfall challenge and the fire tower challenge. At 6 o'clock (dinner time) everyone will find something to eat from the buffet which will include a prime ribs carving board, chicken Marsala, and vegetarian lasagna. That will be followed by a short annual meeting Don't forget to send in your form for CMC membership renewal and annual dinner reservation. Barth Brooker. ---------------------- Back to Top CMC Budget and Nominations for Officers The proposed CMC 2009 budget is on the website. Look under "Members" and then "Financials". The CMC nominations for officers has been corrected. Look at the revised CMC nominations. ---------------------- Back to Top Spreading Jane Blodgett's Ashes
---------------------- Back to Top Wilderness First Aid Course on Nov. 15 -1 6
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Last Chance this Year to extend the MST south. November 15
Meeting Place: Moose Café at 9:00 AM for car pooling. Parkway Maintenance Office, Balsam Gap intersection with Rt. 74/23 south of Waynesville or BRP Mile 449 Overlook @ 9:30 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 bigger the group, the more the fun!!! Rain Date is Saturday November 22. Piet Bodenhorst ---------------------- Back to Top Maintenance Data Clerk Wanted CMC is looking for one good member volunteer to be our new maintenance data clerk to input trail hours and work done, and to help generate reports. Reports of our trail hours are sent to the US Forest Service, the ATC, the BRP and other organizations with whom we work, and are used for CMC awards. Basic computer skills are necessary, as is a conscientious attitude. Some knowledge of our maintenance crews and trail sections would be helpful, but that can be learned. This job will require 2-4 hours per week, and you can do the work on your own time. If interested, please contact Becky Smucker at bsmucker@charter.net and Don Walton at donwalton@bellsouth.net . ---------------------- Back to Top Mt. Mitchell Tower - Where is it?
What's happening to the tower on top of Mt. Mitchell? The old tower was taken down last year and a new one was promised "soon". The left picture is an artist's rendition of the new tower. The right one is what it looks like now. I drove to the top of Mt. Mitchell last week to see how the new tower was coming along. Well, in short, it's getting there but it's not finished yet. The park had hoped for an open house in November but now they're planning it for the Spring. I kept calling the Mt. Mitchell State Park Office every week for weeks and all I got was "We're working on it." When I got up there, there was a buzz of activities. Mostly they need to finish the trail/ramp up to the tower. Also, the safety fence around the tower has to be installed. The tower looks very similar to the one on Clingmans Dome in the Smokies but without the long walk. In fact, one of the main reasons the N.C. State Park system decided to replace it was to make it handicapped accessible. There is a short ramp up to the tower. Rangers will be able to take disabled people up to the tower in a golf cart. Walkers will find that the ramp is shorter and smoother than the one to the old tower. Danny. ---------------------- Back to Top Trail Maintenance Report Paul is the MST Section Maintainer for the Middle Prong Wilderness from Buckeye Gap Trail Junction to NC 215 and he has also taken on a personal goal of clearing the much grown in Green Knob Trail. Don Walton. Hiking out after trail work on Green Knob as the day is ending is peaceful and rejuvenating. A 2.5 hour hike to the closest trail head so you can't leave too late. I like getting to know an area and its trails very well. You can see changes thru the seasons each time that you visit and learn landmarks and other features that become familiar friends. The Middle Prong Wilderness is a special place that Martha and I first discovered more than 20 years ago. I have to admit that I have gotten more personal satisfaction out of volunteer trail work the last two months than from my paying job. The combination of hard physical activity in the mountains that I love and immediate visible results are rewarding. The four of seven trips where family joined me were extra good. Hopefully, the trail to Green Knob will be much easier to maintain on an annual basis now that 10 years of overgrowth and neglect are corrected. Enjoy. Paul Dickens ---------------------- Back to Top Adopt a Section of the Appalachian Trail None now. Get on the waiting list. Adopt a Section of the MST Walnut Cove Overlook to Hardtimes Road 1.2 miles If you're interested, email Don Walton. ---------------------- Back to Top Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton
---------------------- Back to Top Park Announces Dolly Parton as 75th Anniversary Ambassador
Ditmanson said “When we first sat down with our park partners and began brainstorming about how the Park’s anniversary could best gain national stature we asked ourselves: ‘If we could pick one person who is the most recognized and personifies the love of the Smokies, who would it be?’ The answer was a resounding ‘Dolly Parton! But she’s so much in demand; do you think she’ll do it?” Read the whole story from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. ---------------------- Back to Top The eNews comes out on Fridays. So ... The next issue will come out on Friday, November 7.. This will allow the Sunday and Saturday hike leaders a little more time to send in their report; Wednesday hike reports for the hike just before the eNews comes out will be published in the next eNews. So send me your news and maintenance reports by Tuesday evening at 9 P.M. before the newsletter comes out, that is, by Tuesday evening November 4, 2008 to Danny Bernstein at danny@hikertohiker.com. Include your email address at the end of your story. I can only accept the Wednesday hike report by Wednesday evening. 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 ---------------------- Back to Top |
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Danny Bernstein
danny@hikertohiker.com
The family of Jane Blodgett is planning a hike to Mt. Kephart in the Smokies to spread a portion of Jane’s ashes. This was Jane’s wish and the location where Jane and Lewis spread her mother’s ashes years ago. Close friends of Jane and Lewis are invited to accompany the family if they wish providing their own transportation. Meeting place will be at Westgate at 8:30AM on Friday, October 31, the day before the Annual Meeting. Further information can be obtained from Daphne Blodgett Nessler at 
A Wilderness First Aid (WFA) will be offered on November 15-16 at the Blue Ridge Parkway's Destination Center. This hands-on, sixteen-hour course covers a wide range of wilderness medicine topics for people who travel in the outdoors. Whether you are a hiker, maintainer, or leader, you want to be prepared for the unexpected. The Wilderness Medicine Institute of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) has a unique curriculum with topics that haven't been covered in classes previously offered through CMC. After these two days, you'll have the knowledge, skills and ability to make confident decisions in emergency situations.
Superintendent has announced that Dolly Parton has agreed to serve as the Ambassador during the Park’s celebration of its 75th Anniversary. As the Park’s Ambassador, Parton will lend her name and image to a variety of Park events, activities and informational media.