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Two years ago, 50 CMCers' spent a relaxing September weekend at Fontana Village, NC, hiking nearby trails in the Smokies and enjoying a boat trip and tour of an abandoned town and the old Eagle Creek copper mine. We plan to schedule a similar trip this year. So set aside the weekend of Sept. 30 – Oct. 2 to join us. Additional information will be posted in the future in the E-Newsletter and in Let’s Go as plans develop. Please contact Bruce Bente at bbente@cytechusa.com for any questions or suggestions that you have about this trip.

The 2005 Appalachian Trail Days Festival will once again be held in Damascus, Virginia. American Hiking Society will have a display, and Jeffrey Hunter, American Hiking Society’s Southeast Trail Programs Director will be giving two presentations during the weekend. For more information about this fun festival, please visit the following link: www.traildays.nstemp.com

As you will know National Trails Day (NTD) will be June 4, 2005 across the US. In the past the MST has had around 6-8 worksites across the state. Please consider hosting a work day on the MST. You can go to www.americanhiking.org and post your event. Once your post your event you will receive free promotional materials from American Hiking Society. Thanks for your time. Jeff Brewer

RESERVE MAY 21, 2005 for the next Trail Day project!! MST South of Balsam Gap!!!

Using Les Love's Sat. Crew as a nucleus we hope to get another great amount of work done and hopefully make it to Cascades Overlook. This would complete Section # 4 of this long project. Pass the word to all your friends, crew members and hiking clubs in your area. Plan on meeting at 9:00 AM at the Moose Cafe or 9:30 AM at the Ranger Station on BRP and Rt.74/23 Balsam Gap. Piet

Henry Austin Strickland, 89, of Etowah died Wednesday, April 27, 2005, in the Elizabeth House.

He was born in Westminster, S.C., the son of the late Dr. William Strickland and Louise Breazeale Strickland. He was a Navy veteran of World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant and stationed in the South Pacific. He earned degrees in mechanical engineering and education, and later earned two master's degrees in education from Columbia University in New York City. He began his teaching career on Long Island, N.Y., where he taught school for more than 30 years. For the last 12 of these, he taught the third grade with great pride at the Forest Park School in Dix Hills, N.Y. In 1973, he retired to Etowah, where he played golf, hiked and enjoyed many years with wonderful friends. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Arlene; a son, Ross and wife, Barbara; and grandsons, Greg and Brian and his wife, Kerry. A memorial service will be held at 12:30 p.m Saturday at Etowah United Methodist Church. The Rev. Johnathan Coppedge-Henley will officiate. The family will receive friends at a reception following the service Saturday at the church. Memorials may be made to Four Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, P.O. Box 2395, Hendersonville, N.C. 28793. Shuler Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Good News for Hikers -
Benton MacKaye Trail Grand Opening!

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association (BMTA) has some good news. As BMTA celebrate their 25th anniversary, they are preparing for the Grand Opening of the 300-mile Benton MacKaye Trail. The ribbon cutting will be held on July 16 at Mud Gap off the Cherohala Skyway. All are welcome to join the festivities.

With focus shifting away from construction, toward maintenance and enjoyment of the newly opened trail, BMTA is working to get more people involved in hiking and maintaining trails. Therefore, BMTA is offering TEHCC members a $5 discount to join BMTA. TEHCC members are also encouraged to join the new BMTA recreational outings, 'fun hikes'. All outings are on the BMT; either in Georgia, on the new Tennessee/North Carolina extension, or through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Additional information and BMTA membership forms are available at BMTA.org.

Amy Treverton's Travels

April 24: Well I got through Rome without getting mugged but I was awfully tired after standing 4 hours at the Popes mass yesterday. But St. P's was beautiful but couldn't find the stairs to the Cuppolo. Met Trev and Angie in Florence today and did go up the Duomo dome 463 steps - ugh! Florence is a lot nicer and smaller than Rome and has really beautiful architecture! Going on to some salt mines or something tomorrow at Lucca and then on to Milan I guess. Amy

April 28: Well, I made it out of Rome and on to Florence. Spent day and half there but that was enough to see what I wanted. lots of great art and architecture, David's are everywhere but I did not get to see the real one. on another trip I will make plans to see those sights I didn't get to this time. Anyway, Angie left for Spain and Trev and I took a bus to Lucca, nice town, 85,000 totally enclosed by a wall that we took a bike ride on. Then train to Campiglia. Trip from hell!! Got taxi ride to the old hostel near the copper mines, then walked around cause they didn't open till 6 pm. Saw lots of mines, caves, etc. and the visitor info center. Called the hostel from there but there were going to be 70 kids for the night so we got a ride from there to old Campiglia and stayed with the woman that worked at the park.Trev walked me to death and my feet really hurt! That is a very nice little town too! Today we arrived in Milan and found this internet place and now catching up. Will do laundry and see sites tomorrow then on to Munich. Ciao!! Amy

April 30: I am finally in Germany. Munich for a few days. Anyway, we left this morning on a 7 hour train ride from Milan. it was really nice, lots of tall snow capped mtns. but what a long ride. Went around Munich this afternoon and will probably go out to Dachau tomorrow. We have had exceptional weather, knock on wood, no rain and only blue shzs. Well I need to head back to the pension and take a shower. more later, Amy

May 4: We made it to Rebecca and Ricks yesterday, 5-3 and are visiting the military base. Finally rained yesterday but we were on the train and not out trekking somewhere. Munich was nice and we spent 3 days walking around looking for books for Trev. Will be leaving Friday for Berlin and am not looking forward to coming back to go to work. The country here is very pretty and clean - wish Asheville was the same, well it is pretty but some parts are not as clean as it is here. Rebecca has a really nice apartment and it was good to watch TV in ENGLISH! I will send more later. Chus! Amy

May 14, 2005 - Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) - Doughton Park picnic area - noon - Come attend the dedication ceremony for another 14.5 miles of the MST along the BRP (from Devils Garden overlook to NC-18). Bring a picnic lunch and at congratulate the volunteers that constructed this trail. This will also be a MST work weekend from NC-18 to NC-16 near milepost 250 on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. Please RSVP to Allen de Hart - 919-496-4771 or at adh4771@aol.com

CMC Work Crew Maintenance Reports (Past)

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Monday, May 9
Purpose: Trail Construction
Location: MST-Near Balsam Gap
People: 5
Summary: Pulled stumps from the new MST trail extension in preparation for May 21st. workday trail blitz. Covered approximately 600 feet.

Leader: Howard McDonald
Date: Saturday, May 7
Purpose: Shelter Construction
Location: AT-Max Patch Area
People: 4
Summary: Alan Frank, Peter Litvinchyk, Bob Gessner, and I worked on the shelter on Saturday, May 7 for about 6.5 hours. We finished fitting the 2 side logs that have 5 saddle notches in them, cut the 2 saddles in the rear log and fitted it in place, and then nailed in the platform boards so they were up against these logs. We trimmed off the front of those boards before putting on any more logs. We used part of the large locust log that was down there for the two front short logs because we needed the extra diameter to fit against the top of the first front logs. The next 2 side logs were then put on top of the front and rear logs with nails to keep them from moving.These will be marked for saddles and the saddles cut as the first order of work at the next session. We will now be building wall but will have to clear some of the area so we can roll logs up into position. We will see rapid progress making it look like a shelter! Howard

Leader: Skip Shelton
Date: Friday, May 6
Purpose: Bridge Construction
Location: MST-Near Highway 25
People: 15
Summary: Built cribs for new bridge and relocated trail. Need to finish one of the cribs.

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wed, May 4
Purpose: Trail Repair
Location: AT-Lemon Gap to Bluff Mtn.
People: 8

Summary: Good day with Crew spilt up with two helping with the "Log Pile" at the new AT shelter and a big five crew heading in to Catpen Gap. The Catpen crowd performed side hilling all day and we are not yet finished. We put in more that 300 feet of tread. We will need another half day or less to complete the work. Good day today and again we appreciate Bill and Don volunteering to help out at the wood pile. Outstanding all around and thanks. JS Official Report to follow. We missed Mr. Munoz and his good work and bright wit and we hope he will recover shortly. JS

Leader: Barth Brooker
Date: Monday, May 2
Purpose: Sign Construction
Location: MST-Old Bald to Balsam Gap
People: 5
Summary: We finished and area of trail started last fall. In total this is about 4.5 miles of trail from Old Bald access to Richland Gap access. For those not familiar with the area go to hike #195 on CMC hike data base. Enter 195 hike number in appropriate field and ask for map on next screen or click on following: http://www.carolinamtnclub.com/hiking/hikedetails.cfm?hikenum=195 Installed two new posts with signage. In one case old signage post was wrong. Did more blazing along trail. Lopped and cleared branches from trail. At several wet spots worked on improving drainage. Filled in dangerous hole in middle of train. It is a challenging and fun trail.

Leader: Howard McDonald
Date: Thursday, April 28
Purpose: Shelter Construction
Location: AT-Max Patch Area
People: 2
Summary: Alan Frank and I went to the site today and accomplished quite a bit. We did not get rained on until we were ready to leave. We flatted the top of the middle platform support log, reworked the saddles to make the top of that log be flat with the front and back platform logs. After spiking it into place, we smoothed the soil below the platform so hikers can use that space for sleeping, if they wish. Then we cut two 4 foot long logs for the very front cross logs, cut the saddle on one and spiked it into place. While ending the days work, we managed to screw up the saddle notch on the second log and turned it into scrap. Ah well! We blame it on the log being wet and I could not see the correct cutting line. That's my excuse! We cut 3 more and left them propped up so they will be dry when we go in again.
The next work will be to position the two side logs, mark them at five places for saddle notches, and cut the saddles. Then cut just 2 saddles in the rear log, put it in place and install the entire platform.

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, April 27
Purpose: General Maintenance
Location: AT-Lemon Gap to Cat Cap
People: 8
Summary: Another big eight out this "party sunny" day with very light squalls passing through along with some high winds. With so many volunteers out we almost needed name tags but one "visitor" who is always welcome (in hopes of landing him with the Crew) is Don Walton, our "very own" Mr. CMC, Trail, Nature and well connected honcho. Rumor has it that Mr. Walton may, just may, take on the long, lost section of Appalachian Trail section starting at Lemon Gap to the summit of Bluff Mt. We hope he takes a shot at it...only if it were closer...I can drive to Los Angles faster than hauling over to Lemon, Kale and Catpen Gaps. We dropped six strong crew members off at Kale Gap (the Kale Gap Group) and they hit every water bar, drainage ditch and some serious side hilling all the way to the top of Walnut Mountain...there they repaired the privy "front porch" floor, repaired the privy roof and cleaned the old spring; then proceeded south to come out at Lemon Gap cleaning and repairing water bars all the way out. Two more went in at Kale Gap, proceeding to Catgap surveying the trail, removed some heavy rhododendrons hanging low over the trail, removed a hung-up leaner, hit some side hilling and installed four good sized silt bars to fore stall some serious erosion back at Kale Gap, as well as cleaning three water bars going up to Catpen Gap. All came together as planned back at Lemon Gap. From Catpen G. southbound the AT is in great need of serious side hilling and we will plan to take that on next week. Some blazes very faint, some OK. Not much wind damage in this area. Very good day! Thanks guys. JS

Leader: John Soldati
Date: Wednesday, April 20
Purpose: General Maintenance
Location: AT-Street Gap to Big Bald
People: 8
Summary: The best day for the Wednesday Trail Crew. With a big eight, strong talented and raring to go crew members. Barth, Bill, Bob, Charlie, David (R), Don, Jorge and me (the weak one). Surely the best day so far this year and the Crew returned full measure. We took on the blue trail south of Big Bald, cleaning up all the lose rock and installed 10 large silt bars in the steep section to aid hikers coming up or down. We removed 3 trees blocking the blue trail and sent another saw team north to the summit of B. Bald clearing out trees, then this team did a 180 degree turn and marched down to Street Gap. The main group moved down from Wolf Laurel to Street Gap and replaced two broken steps with new ones and added 3 more higher above. We installed several water ditches and improved two others plus remove 2 more trees above the switch back. The saw team marching south removed another 16 trees (left 3 major ones due to time) on the long section south from the summit of B. Bald. Also on the blue trail we checked the spring, and did some sidehilling. Blazes look good an bright, spring in good shape, clean and flowing well. Finished the day talking to AT hikers and drinking ice cold beer. It doesn't get much better than this. Thanks guys. Official Report follows. JS