Carolina Mountain Club
Hike - Save trails - Make friends
June 4, 2010
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| Upcoming Hikes | Hike Reports |Maintenance Schedule |
| Read this now! | Changes to our hiking meeting place |
| What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks | Build a portion of the MST! |
| Other Important News | Volunteer in the Smokies |
| Interview | Meet Kate Dixon |
| Conservation Matters | Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition |
| Heard on the Ground | Adopt a section of trail. |
| Heard on the Trail | Flying through the canopy |
| The Small Print | Deadlines, change of addresses and other details |
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From Your Editor In case you missed it ... Below read below about important changes to our hiking meeting place. This is the last time this will be the lead story. After that, look for the map in The Small Print. Danny Change in Hike Meeting Place
For the time being we can continue to leave cars there for our day of hiking, but we must park in the northernmost part of the lot - past EarthFare, in the last row of parking spaces. Hikers and hike leaders should let each other know now and park in the new area (for us). Click on the map on left for a larger picture. Charlie Ferguson, Chair of CMC Hiking Committee What's Happening in the Next Two Weeks Saturday Workday on June 5, National Trails Day
When: Saturday June 5 Meeting Place: Moose Café at 8:A.M. for breakfast or 9:00 AM for car pooling Or Please call all your friends and acquaintances and invite them. The more hands the more fun!We hope to have a large group help us extend the MST going west to Water Rock Let’s go to the High Mountains. Piet Bodenhorst Why we're in the Woods...
This photo was taken on May 18 by Bill Newton.
Volunteer in the Smokies!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff a new visitor contact station at Clingmans Dome when it opens on Saturday, June 19. Look at the above photos of the new building in progress. The building that served as a comfort station, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, is being renovated and converted into a seasonal information center that will also include a bookstore/sales area managed by Great Smoky Mountains Association. The center sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet and will be a point source of information on the national park, in general, and on this high elevation spruce-fir ecosystem in particular. Volunteers are needed to assist in educating visitors about the Park and providing recreational and trip planning information and directions to other destinations. Volunteers will be working alongside Association employees and each volunteer is asked to work at least one four-hour shift per week, (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) Interested persons will be provided orientation and training before beginning at the contact station. The period that volunteers will be needed is during the peak season, June through October. To sign up for this volunteer work or for more information, contact Florie Takaki at 828/497-1906 or Florie_Takaki@nps.gov , Wednesdays through Fridays. [I've been a volunteer at Oconaluftee Visitor Center since March. The training is great, the atmosphere is supportive and yes, you get to wear a uniform. It's a blast! Danny]
Send a self addressed envelope with postage stamp enclosed in another envelope addressed to Ashok Kudva, (Attention: CMC Car Decal), 605 Carriage Commons Drive, Hendersonville, NC 28791. These are free! The decal with the CMC logo helps tracing the caravan of hiker vehicles. Two weeks ago when we were clearing blow-downs on the Art Loeb Trail in preparation for the May 2 hike we met two thru ALT hikers from Georgia. On our return to the trailhead we found a tied plastic bag on our car with a note. They thanked us for our efforts and left the trash they picked up on the trail in the bag asking us to dispose. CMC logo on my car invited trail-friendly, environmentally conscious action and saved them carry it 15 more miles on the trail. Ashok Kudva. Meet Kate Dixon
Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition
Our objectives are to achieve a unified regional protected network of forests by following the plan laid out in our publication, Return the Great Forest: A Conservation Vision for the Southern Appalachian Region. We also work to achieve greater representation in Washington DC, and to strengthen grassroots groups with the tools and leadership needed to protect the forests at the local level. Read the whole story.
Adopt a Section of the A.T. Adopt a Section of the MST If you're interested in either the A.T. or MST, email Don Walton. Maintenance Reports created by Don Walton
Our Navitat Adventure by Stuart English We were dressed in harnesses by our expert guides, who had also helped build the course last winter. Then we were told that we were there to zip and they were there to clip. In other words, only they could touch the clips. We were told that there was much we would have to do ourselves: such as slow down when told, “self-rescue” (pull ourselves hand over hand to the platform if we came up short), and perform two rappels from up in the trees to the ground. There were also two precarious rope bridges to cross. The first two zips were short and relatively low to the ground. After that, they progressively became higher and faster. At some points we were 200 feet above the valley floor and the longest distance zipped was 1,100 feet. To prepare for all this, my strategy had been to think about it as little as possible. But now I was confronted with it. The guides clipped us in, told us to lean back (“weight the harness”), and then, when we were ready, to raise our legs and cross our feet. When you did this you were gone! All zips started down and came back up to another platform. So the first thing you notice is the speed. I would simply lay my head back and look up at the heavens until I felt it was time to look for the next platform and the guide to give me the signal to break. After all, there wasn’t time to see anything except for maybe your life passing before your eyes. After five or six zips I eventually became used to it. Comfortable or relaxed are not words I would use. When we made our last rappel to the ground I felt very relieved. Then all we were faced with something as hikers we are all prepared to do: walk. The eNews comes out on Fridays. So ... The next issue will come out on Friday, June 18. 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 June 15 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 | ||||||
Danny Bernstein
danny@hikertohiker.com
This is your opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you have had on the trails these past years. We hope to have a large group to help us extend the MST.
Trillium blooming in a bed of moss on the Pisgah Ridge trail near Graveyard Fields.
Lots of it along that trail.
We send a car decal with the CMC logo in the welcome package to each new member. But active members who replace their cars with new vehicles and want replacement decals may not know how to get them.
The Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition (SAFC) is a regional non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and restore the wildlands, waters, native forests and ecosystems of the Southern Appalachian landscape. SAFC is comprised of 21 of the most effective conservation groups spanning the five states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Navitat is a zip line course newly operating on private land near Barnardsville in North Buncombe County. The course consists of 10 zip line cables that extend from one wooden platform to another up in the leafy canopy of trees above Moody Cove. Bobbi Powers, who has many interesting and original ideas to keep us entertained, suggested it would be fun to swing through the trees like Tarzan. So on May 27, six of us arrived at Navitat, signed page after page of waivers, and then were taken up the mountain in two 4-wheel drive golf carts.