Carolina Mountain Club
Hike - Save trails - Make friends
May 29, 2009
|
|
|
| Upcoming Hikes | Hike Reports |Maintenance Schedule |
| Happenings in the next three weeks | National Trails Day - June 6 |
| Other News | CMC Dinner set for Oct. 24 |
| In Memoriam | John Sauerteig |
| Help Wanted | Volunteer wanted for the ATC |
| Heard on the Ground | Trail maintaining opportunities |
| Heard on the Trail | MST Completers |
| The small print | Deadlines, change of addresses and other details |
|
From Your Editor We're in full spring/summer hiking and trail building mode. Celebrate National Trails Day by coming out and helping to build another piece of the MST. Danny What's Happening in the Next Three Weeks National Trail Day - Saturday June 6 You are invited to extend the MST (Mountains-to-Sea Trail) South on June 6 , 2009 ( rain date- June 13 ) for National Trails Day.. This is a great opportunity to give something back for all the fun and enjoyment you've had on the trails this past year. We hope to have a large group to help us complete another piece of the MST going South to the Soco Gap Overlook, South of Balsam Gap, BRP milepost 456. We 'll meet at the Moose Café at 9:00 AM for car pooling. The second meeting place is at the intersection of the Blue Ridge Parkway and Rt. 19, South of Maggie Valley. 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!!! No prior experience is required. Piet Bodenhorst ---------------------- Back to Top The National Parks: America's Best Idea - Preview film on June 3 UNC-TV invites you to a Preview Screening of Ken Burns' and Florentine Films' newest documentary, The National Parks: America's Best Idea.
Tickets are available by calling UNC-TV at 1-866-752-0025, or online at www.unctv.org/nationalparksand are $10 each. Your ticket purchase is a tax-deductible contribution in support of UNC-TV's unique programs and services. ---------------------- Back to Top CMC Annual Dinner and Meeting - Saturday Oct. 24 Put Saturday Oct. 24 on your calendar for the CMC annual dinner and meeting. It will be held at the Chariot in Hendersonville. We are fortunate to have Ron Sullivan as the speaker for the evening. Ron is writing a book on the history of the logging operations in the mountains. Ron is a hiker so he will be able to relate the logging operations to the trails we hike on. Barth Brooker. ---------------------- Back to Top Wilderness First Aid Information The Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine has a Regional Calendar that tracks all the wilderness medicine events we know about in the southern Appalachians. It is accessible at <www.appwildmed.org/events.php> The calendar lists courses for participants at different levels of experience and gives contact information. The Atlanta Outdoor Club is sponsoring a first responder course in August in Cleveland, GA, for $395, which includes lodging and most meals. You can register for that course at ---------------------- Back to Top ATC News
The next Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) biennial meeting will be held at Castleton State College in Castleton, Vermont, from Friday, July17 to Friday, July 24. 600-800 ATC members from all over the country are expected to attend at least part of the meeting, which will feature hikes, workshops, excursions and entertainment, as well as the formal ATC business meetings. All of the events except hiking will be held on the first four day of the meeting, July 17-20. Hikes will be held every day starting on Saturday, July 18. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about ATC and meet other people interested in the A.T. For a complete schedule of events and housing and registration information, see the meeting website (www.vermont2009.org), or the March-April issue of A.T. Journeys. At least a dozen CMC members have said that they plan to attend. If you’d like to join them and are interested in car-pooling, contact Becky Smucker, CMC President. The ATC’s 2013 Biennial meeting will be held at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee, NC. CMC has been chosen as the host club for this event. We’ll share responsibility for planning and presenting the meeting with the four other Clubs in the ATC’s Southern Region and with ATC Staff. While 2013 is a long way off, work on the meeting will start in the next few months. Lenny Bernstein has been selected as Chair of the Steering Committee for the meeting, and CMC will have two additional members on Steering Committee. If you think you might be interested in this activity, contact Lenny (236-0192, Lsberns@att.net). No special expertise is needed, just a willingness to work hard. In case you're wondering, the 2011 meeting will be in Virginia. Lenny Bernstein ---------------------- Back to Top Mount LeConte Hike Trip, 5/19-5/20 Ten climbed the Alum Cave Trail with the sight and sound of white water next to the trail and crossing several foot bridges over Walker Camp Prong, Styx Branch and Alum Cave Creek. We paused for lunch at Alum Cave Bluff with a spectacular view. Both groups shared a happy hour on the porch upon reaching the summit. After dinner we hiked 0.3 mile to Cliff Tops to view the sunset which turned out spectacular. Upon return to the Lodge Kathleen sang for us. Wednesday morning at 5:30 A.M., nine people hiked 0.75 mile to Myrtle Point to view the sunrise. Jeff McGurk captured both sunset and sunrise on video. Others took photographs. After a sumptuous breakfast, eleven people returned on Boulevard Trail and the A.T. Bruce led two hikers on a one hour side trip to Jump Off via Mt. Kephart to capture two SB6K peaks in this trip. Janet, who came up via Trillium Gap, returned with us on Boulevard and A.T. trails to bag mileage from both trails for her Smoky 900M challenge. At one spot on the Alum Cave Trail, I found 5 of the 6 strands broken in the braided cable support on the narrow trail with a steep lateral drop-off. A photograph of this unstable support and its location on GPS track were sent to responsible park crew through Christine Hoyer, Smoky Trail Crew Supervisor in North Carolina. She had represented the Park Service during CMC’s Smokemont hike for the 75th Anniversary of GSMNP. Five hikers enjoyed supper at Snappy’s in Maggey Valley. Jeff, Steve and Lee provided great transportation support to make this a successful and enjoyable trip. Weather gods also were very kind to us.
While the bear encounter may have been exciting, Jeanie was delighted to meet the llama train led by CMC member Alan Householder. Ashok, Photos by Ashok Kudva, and Jeanie Danner, more photos are on CMC website or this link: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/572317507Xwrsnk Ashok Kudva ---------------------- Back to Top John Sauerteig John was broadly talented and a strong participant in community and CMC activities including early 90s to its demise in the early 2000s; an avid hiker, epecially with a four-man crew(Jim Farley, Jim Heglar, John and me), a rock climber, a whitewater kayaker, and an accomplished wood craftsman. Community service included woodworking at the Brevard Music Center and Transylvania Arts Center, Hospice and Neighbors in Ministry. Besides his many skills, his dedication was unbelievable. Dick Johnson From Becky Smucker: John was a long-time and dedicated member of our Monday work crew. He did a lot of technical work on the Skinny Dip Bridge and other aspects of the MST from 816 to the Buck Spring Trail. ---------------------- Back to Top Another Volunteer Opportunity at ATC ATC’s Deep South office in Asheville is looking for a volunteer to contribute about one day a week to help with general office assistance. Tasks may include stuffing envelopes, photocopying, assisting with volunteer trail crew organization, data entry, and answering inquires about hiking and the Appalachian Trail. Call 828-254-3708 for more information. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the Appalachian Trail its cooperative management system. It’s also an opportunity to become more familiar with ATC programs and work in a fun environment with energetic ATC staff. Lending your hand to the resources of ATC’s Asheville office will make a greater impact on the protection and management of the A.T. in the southern region right now. Register for this opportunity on ATC’s new volunteer database: http://atc.civicore.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Opportunities.View&Opportunity_ID=106 Leanna Joyner ---------------------- Back to Top Adopt a Section of the Appalachian Trail Big Butt to Flint Gap 3.3 miles Adopt a Section of the MST Richland Gap Access to Richland Balsam Access (3 Trees) 1.2 miles 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 Two More Hikers Finish the MST On Saturday May 2, Frank Potter and Jim Walters of Charlotte became the 14th and 15th hikers to complete the MST. Read about their adventures in their trail journal.
---------------------- Back to Top The eNews comes out on Fridays. So ... The next issue will come out on Friday, June 19. 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 16, 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 |
||||
Danny Bernstein
danny@hikertohiker.com
The Preview Screening will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3rd, at the Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville. UNC-TV will air the six-episode, twelve-hour documentary in its entirety in Fall 2009. This spectacular series was filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales, including North Carolina's own 
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has added a page on climate change to its website. It’s located at 
Fourteen CMCers hiked to Mount Leconte and stayed overnight at the Leconte Lodge. Four people climbed the Trillium Gap Trail from Gatlinburg on Tuesday and three returned by the same trail on Wednesday.
After returning on the Trillium Gap Trail, Charlie Ferguson reported the following: We were about 2/3 of the way down the Trillium Gap trail, about 15 minutes from Grotto Falls when some hikers, on their way to Le Conte mentioned that they saw some bears on the trail, which then ran up the hill. When we got about five minutes uphill from Grotto Falls, we turned a corner and saw a big mama bear and two year old "cubs", also pretty big. They were about 100 feet down the trail and walking slowly down the trail. We made a little noise which they ignored. Then we made a lot of noise and mama bear and one cub took off up the hillside. One cub stayed on the trail, occasionally looking toward us but not concerned. We got a little closer continuing to make noise. Finally it went up the hill a ways. We slowly passed keeping an eye on the bear. It never got further up from the trail than about 40 or 50 feet. That level of comfort and curiosity about humans probably is not good for that bear.\