Carolina Mountain Club
Hike - Save trails - Make friends
April 3, 2009
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| Upcoming Hikes | Hike Reports | CMC Calendar |
| Happenings in the next two weeks | Book Launch and Fundraiser on April 7 |
| Other News | Spring picnic - April 25 |
| Conservation | No guns allowed in National Parks for now |
| Heard on the Ground | If you can hike it, thank a trail maintainer |
| The small print | Deadlines, change of addresses and other details |
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From Your Editor It's spring flower season. I'd like to feature flower pictures and see the changes as the season progresses. Please send me your wildflower pictures and where you saw them. Danny What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks Book Launch and Fundraiser - April 7 at Diamond Brand Outdoors Help me launch my new guidebook, Hiking North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Heritage.
I'll present a slide program and Earth Fare will provide refreshments. For every book sold that evening, Diamond Brand Outdoors will donate part of the proceeds to Trails Forever program in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In addition, Diamond Brand Outdoors will offer a $20 gift card for anyone that registers to become a member of Friends of the Smokies, at the book launch event. And you’ll also be able to buy the new Dolly Parton CD, written and produced especially for the Smokies 75th anniversary. Trails Forever is the signature fundraising initiative connected to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s 75th anniversary celebration. The Trails Forever endowment will fund an additional permanent trail maintenance work crew to support trail improvement projects along the more than 800 miles of hiking trails inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I hope to see you all there. Danny ---------------------- Back to Top CMC Spring Picnic Saturday April 25 Have you registered for the CMC Spring Picnic on Saturday April 25? 
Hikes, food, friendship and a great slide show are promised and you get into the NC Arboretum as part of the package. You all received an insert with your Let's Go. Please fill it out and send a check to reserve your spot. For more information, contact Les Love. (The above picture is from the 2008 Social.) ---------------------- Back to Top Blue Ridge Parkway Friends Gathering on Friday April 17 The Asheville Chapter of the FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway will host a FRIENDS Spring Gathering on Friday, April 17, 2009 from 5 pm-7 pm at the Asheville REI retail stored in Biltmore Town Square.
For more information, or directions, please call Beth Siegel at 828-251-6758 or on the web at www.blueridgefriends.org ---------------------- Back to Top Appalachian Trail Festival 2009 Who's going to the A.T. Conference in Vermont July 17 - 24? Rocko and I are planning to make a vacation of it as we've spent very little time in that part of the world. I'm just wondering who all might be thinking of going. It looks like a full and interesting schedule of workshops, hikes, excursions, etc. Lenny and Danny Bernstein are each doing a workshop. It would be fun to know who's going, and we might be able to help folks carpool or plan to room together if that's needed. Let me know if you're going, and what your plans are, and if you might want to get heads together to at least plan to meet once while we're all there. Details and registration are at http://www.vermont2009.org/. Becky Smucker bjsmucker@gmail.com. Trina Perkins of Green Mountain Club is still trying to get volunteer hike leaders and co-leaders. A volunteer gets a discount on the registration, free t-shirt, and entered into prize drawings. Trina's contact information is: 802-295-6456 or trinaperkins@comcast.net. ---------------------- Back to Top The North Carolina Arboretum Needs your Help! The Arboretum is a component of the university system and obtains about two-thirds of its operating budget from the state, with the remainder coming from the North Carolina Arboretum Society and donations. See the complete story. Paula Robbins. Photo by Danny Bernstein. ---------------------- Back to Top How Not to Backpack
[In case you're wondering, the above photo shows three backpacks on bear poles - but that picture was taken in dry weather. Danny.] ---------------------- Back to Top Trail to Every Classroom
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In the article Networking with CMC, the Biltmore Estate was listed as an entity we have an alliance with in trail maintenance. It is has been brought to my attention that this is not the case. We are working with the Estate in the project concerning the Buck Springs Lodge, but there is no trail maintenance alliance. We are grateful to anyone who brings attention to the mistakes we make so we will not make them in the future. Stuart English ---------------------- Back to Top No Guns in National Parks, For Now On March 19, a federal judge blocked a federal rule allowing people to carry concealed loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. Judge Kollar-Kotelly set a deadline of April 20 for the Interior Department to review the rule and indicate its course of action. Read the whole article. ---------------------- Back to Top If you can Hike it, Thank a Trail Maintainer Dear Pete: I have to admit I was totally WOWed by you and your crew’s work done on the Moore Cove Figure 8 trail just before I led it. As you know I scouted it with Ashok, Bruce B and my husband Kevin. We were detained many times trying to figure out how to best traverse the blow-downs. Hand saw in hand, we sawed a few branches to make it ‘passable’, but not completely safe. During the actual hike, fresh sawdust was clear evidence of the many places you had made improvements on the trail to make it safer and easier for us to continue on. Please thank the members of your crew for us. We had a safe and fun hike despite chilly, wet and foggier weather. Jan Onan CMC Happy Hike Leader ---------------------- Back to Top From Charlie Ferguson The "safety" burn in Pisgah District has been completed. Yellow Gap Road has been re-opened. ---------------------- Back to Top Adopt a Section of the Appalachian Trail None. Get on the waiting list. Adopt a Section of the MST Devil’s Courthouse Jct. to FS Road 816, 2.4 miles If you're interested in either the A.T. or MST, email Don Walton. ---------------------- Back to Top Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton
---------------------- Back to Top The eNews comes out on Fridays. So ... The next issue will come out on Friday, April 17. 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.Hiker leaders, please send all your eNews hike reports and photos to Dave Wetmore at dwetmore@citcom.net 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 April 14, 2009 to Danny Bernstein at 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 If you are a non-member subscriber, you need to go back to the CMC home page > News >Subscribe and change it there yourself. ---------------------- Back to Top |
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Danny Bernstein
danny@hikertohiker.com
Where: 
The featured speaker will be Anne Mitchell Whisnant, author of Super Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History, and faculty member at UNC Chapel Hill. Come learn more about the volunteer opportunities to support the Blue Ridge Parkway! This event will be free and open to the public, light refreshments will be available. Seating is on a limited, first-come basis.
By now most of you will have heard that the 
Recently I was asked to go on a backpack trip in the Smokies with some friends. I had not backpacked since 1973, which means I really never had, since I had no physical memory of the event and the fact that I would never be 24 again. My friends said that they would help equip me, so I agreed. I bought a water filter and a sleeping bag, borrowed a tent and a pack, and felt increasingly ready to go. I packed my pack and kept the weight around 36 pounds and everyone told me how good that was. Of course to me it felt like 360 pounds and that was just trying to lift it. Read the 
Place-based service learning requires and thrives with community partnerships. That was one of the most important points learned and now implemented in our 
The decision by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the United States District Court halts a change in regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush administration and orders further review.